McKinsey consulting reports more than 62 million people visited New York City in 2023, representing 93% of 2019 levels. That’s also a significant increase (9.3%) from the 56.7 million visitors to the Big Apple in 2022. Domestic tourism has recovered to roughly 95% of pre-pandemic levels, with more than 50 million domestic travellers coming to the city in 2023. International travel is not far behind, recovering to about 86% of 2019 levels. Eleven million international travellers visited New York City in 2023. They are an important source of travel revenue as they spend, on average, three times as much as Read more
Honolulu
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
National Hawaii Day is today, July 5. To mark the occasion, yours truly, a 35-time visitor to the islands, is offering up some thoughts on special hotels and resorts you should consider for your next trip. Remember to visit responsibly and respectfully. Side note: Travel + Leisure came out with their list of the top 20 resorts of Hawaii on Tuesday, July 9. I believe eight of their top picks are on my list below. O’AHU Four Seasons Resort Oahu at Ko Olina: Resting alongside the Aulani Disney resort outside of Honolulu, this is a chill spot overlooking a pretty Read more
There are some new spots on the Dr. Beach list of top beaches in the United States and Hawaii takes three of the top seven places. Dr. Stephen Leatherman, who calls himself “Doctor Beach,” has put out his ranking of top beaches for 2024. And there’s a new King, or rather Duke, at the top. For 2024, Leatherman puts Duke Kahanamoku Beach on the Hawaiian island of O’ahu in the top spot. Wailea Beach on Maui (I was there last fall) was third, and Po’ipu Beach on Kaua’i (a long-time fave of mine) came in at number seven. I’m also Read more
Canadian tourism is setting an ambitious goal to move up the tourism ladder. Whether it can be achieved is something nobody will know for several years. Destination Canada on Thursday May 16 launched its new tourism strategy, ‘A World of Opportunity‘ which sets a firm focus on transforming the Canadian tourism sector and catapulting Canada back into the top seven global destinations by 2030. Destination Canada President and CEO, Marsha Walden, and Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Minister of Tourism, officially presented the tourism roadmap designed to increase Canada’s global competitiveness and bring in up to $160 billion in annual revenue by Read more
