There’s something about folks who live in tough climates that I just love. They have a sense of independence and a do-it-yourself attitude I find highly appealing. And they don’t come much tougher — or more colourful — than in Dawson City. There’s a colourful history to Dawson City, thanks in part to the “women of the evening” during the gold rush. You can learn about some of the madams’ stories on a fun walking tour of the town offered by Parks Canada. At one point, locals ran the working women out of town. One enterprising madam set up shop Read more
Canada
Canada’s tourism industry can’t seem to catch a break. As if COVID-19 and tough travel restrictions for two years weren’t enough, now come summer wildfires. It was Alberta’s turn a few weeks ago, then Nova Scotia. Now we have wildfires in Ontario and Quebec that are sending smoke south into the U.S., causing American news networks to broadcast nightly segments about smoke from the Great White North. Those kind of news broadcasts, which are perfectly reasonable, seem to be having an effect on tourism. “We have had a few conversations with our members and we’re already seeing domestic and international Read more
What a great idea, albeit a long time coming. A new 4.5-hour guided Shawshank Bus Tours is now offered now throughout filming sites for what IMDB ranks as the No. 1 Movie of all time, The Shawshank Redemption, which was shot almost entirely in Richland County, Ohio. It’s an easy to reach area that’s roughly midway between Cleveland and Columbus. Offered at 10 a.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 10 a.m., with some added at noon on Sundays, the tours are available now through Sept. 3 and take place on a gorgeous new wheelchair accessible tour bus wrapped with bold images Read more
As Rosanne Roseannadanna liked to say on the old Saturday Night Live skits, “If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” The airline industry in the past six months has battled freak snowstorms. They’ve had mysterious computer issues. I seem to recall a plague of locusts in Nebraska, but I could be wrong. Anyway, now comes something else: wildfire smoke. Cancellations didn’t seem too bad, but major airports in eastern Canada and the northeastern United States suffered thousands of delays on Wednesday as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south. At one point, the Federal Aviation Administration in the U.S. called a Read more
The fast-paced airline recovery continues in Canada, with a strong financial report today from Transat A.T. Inc. “For the second quarter of 2023, Transat reported a solid performance, with an adjusted operating income of $56.1 million, nearly 40% higher than in the same quarter of 2019,” said officials from the company, which runs Montreal-based Air Transat. “At mid-year, and based on current booking trends, we are raising the target for the adjusted operating income margin from the initially set range of 4% to 6% to a target of 5.5% to 7% for the fiscal year.” “Several factors contributed to the Read more
