A new report looks like bad news for tourism and the business travel industry. My travel notebook also has good news for tourism in Las Vegas, Vancouver, San Francisco, Toronto, Bali, and Halifax. I also have news about Emerald Cruises in the Caribbean. BUSINESS TRAVEL: WILL IT EVER RECOVER? A company called Morning Consult surveyed more than 16,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region between October 2021 and summer 2022. It found that two in five Americans who used to travel for work three times a year say they will NEVER take another business trip. People’s intentions Read more
Asia
An insurance company called Luko has looked at the most bike-friendly cities in the world, and Europe came out smelling like a rose. Nine of the top ten bike-friendly cities were in Europe, led by Utrecht, Holland. North American cities fared poorly, with Montreal the only entry in the top 20 (16th overall). Vancouver came 37th, while San Francisco was the top U.S. city in 39th position. Portland, Oregon was 41st and Seattle 50th. Cities were ranked on a variety of issues, including bike accident rates, theft rates, weather, bike usage and infrastructure. Holland had two cities in the top Read more
Expedia Group bookings for the second quarter of this year were the highest in history, and travellers around the world are taking more long-haul flights to traditional, top destinations. Expedia Group’s second quarter report for 2022 revealed a 40% increase in stayed room nights and a nine per cent increase in stayed average rates. That means significantly more travel despite higher rates, a sure sign of the pent-up demand for travel around the world. The study revealed that the global demand for long-haul flights (more than four hours) soared by more than 50% during the second quarter, compared to last Read more
Toronto is once again marketing itself in the U.S. as a great travel destination. The city has done okay with domestic travel, but U.S. visitors are key to Toronto’s tourism, as foreign visitors tend to stay longer and spend more than domestic visitors. The campaign is called “You Gotta See What We See,” and uses “enthusiastic, passionate Torontonians with stories we believe will resonate with our US audiences specifically.” Sounds like a smart plan to me. Many would-be travellers love to check out Tik Tok and Instagram pages before they book a trip, so why not use those influencers? Geographically, Read more
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I know. But sometimes I can’t help but get riled up about silly travel lists. For example, there’s this that I found today on a website called mentalfloss.com. The story says a group called Online Mortgage Advisor looked at something called the Golden Ratio (yeah, I’ve never heard of it, either), which measures shapes and building sizes that are pleasing to the eye, and then ranked world cities based on that. It’s interesting, and there are some worthy candidates on the list. But simply focusing on pleasing architectural shapes warps things so Read more
