So, you think those of us who live in Toronto have it bad with Pearson Airport? Well, yeah, it’s been tough, with long wait times, lost luggage and general messiness. I’m not excusing our airlines or airports, but Pearson isn’t the only airport suffering right now. Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport has had major problems, as has Montreal Trudeau. Perhaps the worst, however, is London Heathrow. LHR, one of the world’s busiest airports, has made the extraordinary move of asking airlines to stop selling tickets for outbound travel this summer. CNN reports that Heathrow will be limiting passenger traffic to just 100,000 departures per Read more
Europe
The United Nations’ World Tourism Organization has issued a list of the countries with the most visitors for 2021. It was, admittedly, a difficult year for tourism. But the stats paint an interesting picture. Given the state of COVID and the restrictions around travel throughout most of Asia, you’ll notice that there are no Asian countries on the list. TOP TOURISM DESTINATIONS IN 2021 10. Hungary, 7.9 million visitors 9. Croatia, 10.6 million 8. Germany, 11.7 million 7. Austria, 12.7 million (I was in Vienna earlier this year and found it fantastic) 6. Greece, 14.7 million 5. United States, 22.1 Read more
A new list of the world’s most liveable cities puts three Canadian places in the top ten. Calgary came tied with Zurich for third spot, while Vancouver was fifth and Toronto eighth. No other country had three cities in the top ten, although Switzerland did have two. No Canadian cities made the top ten in 2021, so this is pretty cool. The Global Liveability Index is an annual ranking from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) that rates 172 cities around the world on over 30 factors, from healthcare, infrastructure, education and crime rates to access to cultural and sports pursuits Read more
With many now planning their summer road trips, Premier Inn has researched Pinterest and Google search data for various routes around the world to reveal which road trips are inspiring the most wanderlust this year. The number of Pinterest boards and Google searches were counted and compared for road trips in the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. When it comes to holiday research and inspiration, Pinterest is one of the places where travel dreams are shared, with Pinterest boards revealing plenty about people’s future travel plans. Similarly, many holidaymakers turn to Google when researching Read more
To celebrate the return of Pride around the globe, Airbnb is revealing the top 50 worldwide Pride celebrations this summer. Three Canadian cities made the list. Toronto finished seventh, Montreal was 25th and Vancouver 28th. This ranking is based on total nights booked over respective Pride weekends worldwide, looking at bookings made on Airbnb from January to May 2022. The list uncovers nights booked in each respective city over their Pride weekends this year, with bookings hitting a significant milestone: tens of thousands of nights have already been booked over the top 50 Pride weekends for this summer, bringing Pride weekends in Read more