Toronto is once again marketing itself in the U.S. as a great travel destination. The city has done okay with domestic travel, but U.S. visitors are key to Toronto’s tourism, as foreign visitors tend to stay longer and spend more than domestic visitors. The campaign is called “You Gotta See What We See,” and uses “enthusiastic, passionate Torontonians with stories we believe will resonate with our US audiences specifically.” Sounds like a smart plan to me. Many would-be travellers love to check out Tik Tok and Instagram pages before they book a trip, so why not use those influencers? Geographically, Read more
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I know. But sometimes I can’t help but get riled up about silly travel lists. For example, there’s this that I found today on a website called mentalfloss.com. The story says a group called Online Mortgage Advisor looked at something called the Golden Ratio (yeah, I’ve never heard of it, either), which measures shapes and building sizes that are pleasing to the eye, and then ranked world cities based on that. It’s interesting, and there are some worthy candidates on the list. But simply focusing on pleasing architectural shapes warps things so Read more
Two major hotel groups are reporting surging numbers, further proof that the travel recovery is very real. Ongoing strength in leisure travel and an acceleration in the recovery of group demand pushed Marriott International’s second-quarter performance to or above 2019 levels. Hilton also is reporting much stronger numbers than expected. Excluding its hotels in the Greater China region, Marriott’s global June revenue per available room (RevPAR in hotel parlance) came in at 1% above 2019 levels, Marriott CEO Tony Capuano said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call, according to Hotel News Now. Worldwide occupancy reached 71%, only 5 percentage points Read more
I found an item on Yahoo News today, and I think it’s appalling. Yahoo quotes the Wall Street Journal as saying some Las Vegas hotels are charging people up to $200 (that’s US dollars) to reserve a chair by the pool. Not a cabana. Oh, no. Those can cost $1,000. This is just for a chaise lounge or chair next to the pool (where it’s probably 100 Fahrenheit, by the way.) It’s disgusting, it’s greedy, and it shouldn’t be allowed. A lounge chair for $200? Why not charge for water from the shower? Or for adjusting the thermostat? Why not Read more
Two powerful U.S. Senators are demanding better protection for airline passengers hit by cancellations and delays. Amid a spike in the number of flight cancellations and delays, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) this week sent a letter urging the U.S. Department of Transportation to fully utilize its statutory authority to protect consumers, promote competition in the airline industry, and hold airlines accountable for delayed and canceled flights. In the letter, the lawmakers raised concerns about Americans’ air travel experiences, which have grown steadily worse over the past year, and laid out specific actions DOT can take Read more
