A couple days after Hurricane Beryl ripped the roof off the home of a Grenada Tourism Authority worker on the island of Carriacou, some of her fellow employees hopped on the first available boat to see if they could help. “She really tried to be strong, but she broke down in tears,” Sekou Stroude, the authority’s Director of Sales for Canada, told me in an interview this week. “It’s gut-wrenching, because she’s such a selfless person; someone who’s always willing to help with whatever’s needed. She’s a real sweetheart, and seeing her go through that kind of pain breaks our Read more
Grenada
Travel + Leisure released its Readers’ Choice Travel Awards for 2024 today (July 9). California had the top city hotel in the U.S. while Toronto had the top Canadian hotel. I usually find Vancouver wins the most hotel awards in Canada, but this time Toronto stole the show with the number one pick overall and three of the top six. For the U.S., California had two entries in the top 10 but Boston had two in the top four, so they definitely win the grand prize for 2024. Travel + Leisure also had readers name their top hotels in the Read more
The latest ranking of countries for travel and tourism puts Canada just outside the top 10. The 2024 Travel and Tourism Development Index from the World Economic Forum gives top spot to the United States, followed by Spain and Japan. Canada came in 11th, receiving relatively low scores for tourism infrastructure, openness to travel and tourism, cultural resources and price competitiveness. Destination Canada and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada recently stated that Canada was recently ranked 13th (in 2021), and that they aimed to get the country into the top seven by 2030. The tourism index report states Canada Read more
A record Memorial Day for travel in the United States, Bluey’s World is coming to Brisbane Australia, and how to save on great trips to Europe. I also have news about more WestJet flights to Mexico, the Caribbean and Florida, new Air Transat Club Class discounts and firework cruises coming up at Niagara Falls. A busy today for the old travel blog. RECORD MEMORIAL DAY EXPECTED IN THE U.S.A. By car, plane, rail and sea, nearly 44 million Americans plan to travel over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, which could beat a record for the late May holiday that Read more
Canada’s tourism industry can’t seem to catch a break. As if COVID-19 and tough travel restrictions for two years weren’t enough, now come summer wildfires. It was Alberta’s turn a few weeks ago, then Nova Scotia. Now we have wildfires in Ontario and Quebec that are sending smoke south into the U.S., causing American news networks to broadcast nightly segments about smoke from the Great White North. Those kind of news broadcasts, which are perfectly reasonable, seem to be having an effect on tourism. “We have had a few conversations with our members and we’re already seeing domestic and international Read more
