A province for all seasons. And one that absolutely LOVES Ontario. The folks from Quebec Tourism threw a fabulous cocktail reception at a cool gallery in Toronto’s Distillery District on Tuesday, talking up the fabulous, year-round destinations they have to offer. It’s pretty remarkable when you think about it. They have awesome cities like Montreal with great festivals like Montreal en Lumiere, which started today and goes to March 2. They also have Carnival in Quebec City, which just wrapped up another fabulous season. They also have some of North America’s best skiing and snowboarding in places like Tremblant, Mont Read more
Canada
They were calling it “the lost decade.” Tourism officials gathered in Toronto last week for the annual Canadian Tourism Marketing Summit. And it wasn’t pretty talk. This country is in desperate need of a new tourism strategy. So far, the Harper government in Ottawa seems oblivious. We thought we were perhaps riding high after the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. But the statistics tell a very sad story. In 2002, Canada ranked eighth in the world in international tourist arrivals, with 19.6 million visitors. That was good for number eight in the world. By 2011, the year after the Vancouver Games, Read more
At first I meant it as a bit of a joke. After watching Justine and Chloe (and Maxine) Dufour-Lapointe race in the freestyle skiing event at the Sochi Olympics on Saturday and seeing Justine win gold and Chloe silver, I mentioned on Twitter that the Canadian Tourism Commission should enlist them immediately as ambassadors for travel to Canada. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Lest we think these girls were only noticed north of the border, I can tell you that my Dad lives in California and read about the D-L girls and saw them Read more
It’s that time again. The Sochi Olympics have already begun, and the Opening Ceremony is Friday at 11 a.m. Eastern time. This is the first winter Olympics I’ve missed being at since Nagano. I was the Star’s Olympics assignment editor and on-site web person for all the Games from Sydney in 2000 up to Vancouver in 2010. Vancouver was a magical way to finish my Olympics career. I spent pretty much 15 to 16 hours a day at the Main Press Centre, organizing assignments and covering the odd press conference and writing sometimes eight or 10 stories a day for Read more
Mark my words; it’s only a matter of time until we start paying for our first bag on WestJet flights. WestJet yesterday upped prices by two per cent in response to the falling Canadian dollar. Air Canada did the same thing, as apparently did Air Transat. With the loonie down around 90 cents (it was up slightly yesterday), they probably have no choice. Some airlines, including Sunquest and Air Canada Vacations, already brought in special surcharges to make up for the falling dollar. Experts have said these moves have added seven to nine per cent in total costs to many Read more
