As cruise travel numbers rise around the world, several cruise lines say they plan to soon drop their COVID restrictions. A report in Travel Weekly says Ponant, which recently acquired Paul Gauguin Cruises, plans to drop its vaccination requirement for passengers on April 1. “After careful consideration of the lower incidence of Covid infections, combined with the higher rate of vaccinated and boosted guests, we have decided to relax our policy,” said Navin Sawhney, CEO of Americas at Ponant. Travel Weekly said Cunard plans to drop vaccination requirements for guests on the Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2 beginning April Read more
Asia
Time Magazine (remember them?) is out with a list of its top 50 destinations for 2023. Some of my fave places made the list, including Vancouver, Vienna, surprising Tampa and the Caribbean island of Dominica, where I spent five days in January. Also making the list on the Canadian side of the ledger was Churchill, Manitoba, which I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting. For Australia, placements went to Kangaroo Island in South Australia and Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. There are six U.S. places on the list but none from the United Kingdom or Ireland, which is a little Read more
It’s a move that will certainly spark renewed interest in Chinese visits to Canada, and Canadian visits to Asia. The Canadian government today (March 17) ended travel restrictions on passengers flying in from the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong and Macao. That should provide a considerable boost for tourism in Western Canadian provinces, who rely on wealthy Chinese and Hong Kong residents for steady business, especially in the busy summer season. This means that there are no longer any federal COVID-19 border measures in place for Canada. And that’s quite something. “We welcome the removal of pre-departure test requirements Read more
If you’re a Canadian and you can’t find your friends or neighbors this week, look south. American Express says there’s “high demand” for international travel this March Break, and that Canadians seem to have headed south. Again. The company says the top five international destinations for Amex Cardmembers this March Break are: Florida London New York Los Angeles Las Vegas Yahoo Canada says Amex Trendex data found that 53 per cent of Canadians plan on spending more on travel this year, compared to 2022. The website also quotes Skyscanner as saying the top five destinations for Canadian travellers between March Read more
WestJet’s controversial takeover of Sunwing is set to be approved today by the Trudeau government. WestJet also has been given federal licenses for flights to Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. The Globe and Mail this morning (March 10) reported that the announcement will be made today, providing WestJet with a huge increase in its share of the packaged vacation business. Calgary-based WestJet and Toronto-based Sunwing announced the proposed merger in March, 2022. The federal Competition Bureau later stated that the takeover would lead to fewer choices for Canadian travellers, and higher prices. The Globe story said the Trudeau Read more
