Canada

A new look at the world’s best cities puts Vienna on top, but the top of the charts is dominated by cities in Canada and Australia. The Global Liveability Indes from Economist Intelligence looked at a variety of quality of life factors in cities around the world, including such issues as stability, health care, culture and environment. The list is for liveability, not necessarily what’s the best place for a tourist to visit. But it’s still instructive. Vienna was tops, with a score of 98.4 out of 100. Here’s a link to a short item I posted about Vienna recently. Read more

  Porter Airlines is adding Winnipeg to its growing network, with flights between Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and Winnipeg Richardson International Airport (YWG). Service between the provincial capitals begins on September 7, with two daily roundtrip flights. The new Winnipeg-Toronto Pearson route will operate with state-of-the-art, 132-seat Embraer E195-E2 aircraft. The service also connects to Porter’s Eastern Canada network out of Toronto-Pearson, including Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax. Introductory roundtrip fares start at $177. Winnipegers will soon have access to Porter’s elevated economy experience, an option that doesn’t exist in Winnipeg today,” said Kevin Jackson, executive vice president and chief Read more

The pandemic may be over, but the pain continues for Canadian tourism and travel businesses. Forty-five per cent (45%) of Canada’s tourism businesses report that they are likely or somewhat likely to close within the next three years without government intervention into their mounting debt load, according to new research commissioned by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) and its provincial and territorial counterparts. The survey finds that 55 per cent of tourism sector businesses who share their views are somewhat not or not confident that their company will be able to make debt payments (principal and interest) that Read more

Competition in Canadian skies is about to decrease by a very large amount. Just days after WestJet officials revealed they were merging Swoop Airlines into mainline operations, it now appears they’re going to fold Sunwing Airlines. Canadian Press reports WestJet is planning to wind down Sunwing Airlines, “integrating the low-cost carrier into its mainline business within two years as part of a plan to streamline operations.” In an internal memo obtained by The Canadian Press, Sunwing Airlines president Len Corrado said the change will open up markets for the 18-year-old company as well as its workers. “WestJet will eventually move Read more