A new report from hotels.com finds Canadians are looking for trips to Spain, as well as football rivalry games and cool, Nordic adventures. For the upcoming Civic Holiday (Aug. 1-3), searches for Mallorca are up 85%, while searches for Madrid are up 45%. Domestically, searches are up 40% for the London, Ontario ribfest and up 20% for the 50th annual Festival of Friends in Hamilton, Ontario. For Labour Day, searches for Reykjavik, Iceland are up 100%, while searches for Copenhagen have jumped 90%. On the domestic front, Regina has seen a 330% increase in searches ahead of the iconic Labour Read more
Denmark
Italy has emerged as the top foreign destination for U.S. travelers, with Canada in second place. IMG (International Medical Group) has released the results of its 6th annual Travel Outlook Survey, which gathered 1,000+ responses from U.S.-based IMG customers about their 2026 travel plans. International and Domestic Travel Plans This year’s results show continued demand for travel in 2026, with high interest in both international and domestic trips. • 93% of respondents plan to travel internationally • 38% of international travelers plan to take three or more trips • 88% of respondents plan to travel domestically – a 3% Read more
Congratulations to the True North Strong and Free. A recent report by The Reputation Institute, a corporation with offices in Boston and Copenhagen, ranked the top countries in the world based on how the rest of the world perceives them. They considered such factors as natural beauty, the populace’s outlook and attitude towards their homeland, domestic safety and security, and the competence of the government. Canada came out on top, followed by Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Australia. The U.S. didn’t make the top 20, which seems to suggest what the rest of the world thinks of Donald Trump and his Read more
The people who run the Global Liveability Index have come out with an exhaustive ranking of world cities. The top ten list is dominated by Europe and Australia, but Canada placed four cities in the top 20, which is nothing to sneeze at. According to Time Out, The Global Liveability Index rated more than 170 world cities based on five major factors. They are stability (such as the threat of conflict or prevalence of petty crime); healthcare (availability of over-the-counter drugs, quality of public healthcare); culture and environment (temperatures, levels of censorship); education (availability and quality of private education) and Read more
As a long-time (50 years this year, wow) journalist, I do occasionally consider the dark side of things. When I see a list of the safest cities in the world to visit, for example, I always wonder who finished at the bottom. That isn’t very nice, I suppose. But I guess it’s human nature. With that in mind, I was delighted to see that a recent study of the most welcoming countries in the world was followed up with a list (from a different source) of the LEAST welcoming nations in Europe. It it may not be very scientific, and Read more
