Expedia’s climb in Canada has been remarkable. Fifteen years ago, Expedia.ca was just coming into existence. Most Canadians looking for hotels at the time used something called a land-line telephone at home to book hotels or even went without reservations and cruised the highways of Canada and the U.S., or the streets of Europe, looking for flashing vacancy signs in hotel windows. Now, Expedia.ca is the largest on-line travel service provider in the country and does $12 billion gross in business in Canada per year; a target they reached back in 2012. From zero hotel properties and zero airlines in Read more
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WestJet Encore began two years ago as a regional division of WestJet with two aircraft serving five cities. With today’s announcement that they’re adding a whack of new flights in the Maritimes and Newfoundland (as well as new options in Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa), WestJet’s Encore division is up to 16 planes serving more than 20 destinations, officials said. WestJet executives took to the tarmac at Stansfield International in Halifax today to unveil several new flights, including Halifax-Glasgow (May 29 on regular WestJet, not Encore), Halifax-Gander (July 15 on Encore), Halifax-Deer Lake/Corner Brook (July 15, Encore) and Halifax-Sydney (July 15, Read more
A great Ontario getaway, and a smashing cruise offer. Star Travel columnist Kathryn Folliott has a couple of excellent bargains on offer in her latest Fare Deals column. One great deal she outlines is for significant savings on a cruise with Silversea ; a free suite upgrade and on-board spending credit worth up to $1,000 (U.S.) per suite. I was lucky enough to have a suite on a Silversea ship last year, cruising the Mediterranean. It was an outstanding experience, with a HUGE suite that gave us everything we needed. The bedroom was large and comfortable and the bathroom was Read more
I’m constantly getting scrunched up faces from people at cocktail parties or dinners. I shower a lot and try to get to the laundry when I can, so it’s not that. No, what surprises some folks is that not even travel writers and former newspaper travel editors get to go everywhere they want. When I tell folks all the places that are still on m to-do list (Portugal, Poland, pretty much all of Africa, all of Central America and definitely all of South America) they look at me like I’m a little crazy. Some of it I can explain. Some Read more
Canadians are far more willing to unplug on holidays than most folks in the world. We’re also less likely to exaggerate our vacation experiences than residents of other countries. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Canadians place deodorant ninth on their list of things they find most important to pack, behind their passport, travel insurance and even a razor. Then again, this is the country that brought the phrase “playoff beard” into the global lexicon, so the latter may not be surprising. In a wonderful study issued today by hotels.com , it was found that folks from Read more
