Americans Love Italy, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Ireland: A State by State Analysis Americans in 10 U.S. states put Italy at the top of their travel list. But Californians love Hawaii. And Indiana folks love Ireland. New research has revealed the most searched travel destination in each American state. The research, conducted by travel information site Places To Travel, analyzed Google Trends data to establish the top vacation destinations of each state throughout the nation. The analysis revealed that Italy was the most popular travel destination in 10 states, including New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Arizona. I just returned from Read more
China
A new study of downtown Toronto commerce shows the tourism industry has bounced back nicely from the pandemic. But we’re not out of the woods yet. The Toronto Star on Thursday ran a story that talked about a University of Toronto School of Cities study that looked at cellphone usage in the city centre to determine the number of daily visitors to various types of buildings. Looking at 2019 levels versus 2023, the study found that Toronto’s hospitality buildings had a 100% recovery rate in terms of visitors. The recovery rate for office buildings was only 69%, and for retail Read more
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is asking Canada’s top bureaucrat to look into the controversial ArriveCAN app. Trudeau this week said it was “illogical and inefficient” for the public service to give millions of dollars in contracts to a two-person firm that subcontracted out its work on the app, which was used to keep track of Canadians and visitors coming over the border during the COVID-19 pandemic. Published reports say the app could end up costing taxpayers $54 million. Critics have said the app could’ve been developed for a tiny fraction of that amount. The CBC reports that “GCstrategies subcontracted out Read more
Aw shucks, folks; we’re speechless. A new study from the folks at usjetcost.com finds that Americans rate Canada as the country with the nicest, most welcoming locals. They also rated Canadians as the second nicest tourists in the U.S.. I’m personally baffled by this, but a majority of Americans in the study said the British are the most annoying tourists, with 31% of respondents naming them as the most bothersome. Next were Germans (16%) and Brazilians (13). I get that Americans overthrew the British government a couple hundred years ago because of taxes and the high cost of tea and Read more
There’s been a good deal of attention paid to how the ongoing trade wars and increasing political hostility between the U.S. and China and between Canada and China is hurting the economies of both the U.S. and Canada. What I hadn’t seen until today is something that focusses on how travel and tourism are being affected. A report on CBS News paints a troubling picture that should have American tourism folks pretty scared. I also found a Statistics Canada study from this week that shows Canadians also are being hurt. The CBS News item quotes a study from Tourism Economics, Read more
