WestJet today announced its 2023 summer 787 Dreamliner routes from YYC Calgary International Airport, unveiling Tokyo, Japan, as its first destination in Asia with new service to Narita International Airport. The airline is also creating greater two-way tourism opportunities and increasing connectivity between Western Canada and Europe with new service between Calgary and Barcelona, Spain and Edinburgh, Scotland along with increased frequencies on existing European routes. Today’s announcement comes as WestJet prepares for broader expansion within Canada and North America over the coming months. Open Jaw reports that flights from Toronto to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Barcelona and London Gatwick will Read more
Barcelona
A new report looks like bad news for tourism and the business travel industry. My travel notebook also has good news for tourism in Las Vegas, Vancouver, San Francisco, Toronto, Bali, and Halifax. I also have news about Emerald Cruises in the Caribbean. BUSINESS TRAVEL: WILL IT EVER RECOVER? A company called Morning Consult surveyed more than 16,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region between October 2021 and summer 2022. It found that two in five Americans who used to travel for work three times a year say they will NEVER take another business trip. People’s intentions Read more
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
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
Air Transat is pleased to be back in Barcelona, Venice and Brussels, after several months of forced suspension due to COVID-19. Back in Barcelona The airline will operate this weekend its first flight between Toronto and Barcelona (TS248), which will be offered twice a week at the height of the season. Until the end of October, the airline will operate these flights with its new-generation Airbus A321neoLR aircraft. Air Transat offers a selection of direct routes to Spain from Montreal and Toronto: Departure city Destination Starting # of direct flights per week* Montreal Barcelona April 13 3 Montreal Madrid Read more
