The air wars get more intense every week, it seems. And with it our choices for air travel increase. Calgary-based WestJet today announced “its most comprehensive schedule release since the airline took to the skies in 1996.” The airline said it’s adding five new routes, increasing frequency on 20 existing routes across the network, and moving five seasonal routes to year-round service. The biggest news for folks in the right-hand side of the country is that WestJet Encore is moving east (as expected) to start service between Toronto and Thunder Bay, as well as between Thunder Bay and Winnipeg. “The Read more
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Canada has a new five-diamond hotel. And it’s a local success story. The American Automobile Association and Canadian Automobile Association last week quietly released their new list of top-rated hotels and restaurants in Canada and the U.S., and it gave the (relatively) new Four Seasons hotel in Toronto a coveted five-diamond rating. That brings the number of Canadian properties with five-diamond status to five in Canada: the Four Seasons in Toronto’s Yorkville area, the Ritz-Carlton Toronto downtown, the Ritz-Carlton in Montreal, the Four Seasons in Whistler, B.C. and the Shangri-La in Vancouver. Which means Ontario is the only province with Read more
DELRAY BEACH, FLORIDA – I had no idea. I’ve driven past Delray Beach a few times on my way from Palm Beach or Orlando to Miami. But I had no clue it was this vibrant and fun and interesting. And I didn’t know how sumptuous the Boca Raton Resort really was. I was just down in Florida for a tourism event called Florida Huddle; a chance to meet with hotel and attraction folks and tourism destination reps at the Palm Beach County Convention Centre. But I did a two-day visit to Delray and Boca Raton prior to the meetings that Read more
BANFF, ALBERTA – It’s one of the great tourist attractions of Canada. And one of the top views in the world. I’ve been up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola in Banff several times. This year was the first time I’d done it in winter. And it was spectacular. I was out in the Rockies on a recent visit and had been hoping to do a helicopter tour near Kananaskis _ a gorgeous part of Alberta – and maybe some snowshoeing high in the mountains. But the winds were fierce and the chopper pilot said it wasn’t safe to fly. I always Read more
Your winter vacation may have just become more expensive. On the other hand, if you work in the hospitality industry in Toronto you might have more money in your pocket for a holiday next year. The Canadian dollar is dropping, in case you hadn’t noticed. After being close to par against the American greenback for some time, the loonie has slipped. Badly. As of Friday afternoon, it was down to 91 cents and change against the mighty U.S. dollar. That’s about as low as we’ve been in four and-a-half years. What that means for many of us is that hotel Read more
