CHATHAM-KENT, ONTARIO – A beach town with charm to spare. A vital link to Ontario’s black history. And a positively wondrous hotel in a town that will definitely surprise you. I had stopped in the town of Erieau a couple years ago on a trip along the Lake Erie shoreline (sometimes called Canada’s forgotten coast). It was only a brief drive-by, but I was charmed by the low-key yet vibrant nature of the town and beguiled by the beach and the cute waterfront homes. This time, with the help of the folks at Ontario’s Southwest I managed to squeeze in Read more
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What are the world’s best cities and best destinations? What are the top places to see in the United States and Canada? A company called Neomam and another called SavingSpot analyzed Instagram accounts worldwide that used the phrase and hashtag #TakeMeBack. They then tallied up the number of posts for each of those places and came up with a list of the places people would love to go back to the most. Below I have lists of top world destinations, top Canadian places, top spots in the U.S. and top countries. There are a few surprises in here, so have Read more
I’m not going to call this the beginning of the road to recovery, because I learned in my years covering baseball that you never jinx things in the press box by saying things like, “Gee, this game is REALLY moving along nicely,” as that pretty much GUARANTEES a 15-inning nightmare. However, I will say it’s a joy to have good news to report on a couple of major fronts today in my regular Future of Travel blog, including news of June planning by both Air Canada Vacations and the Lufthansa Group of airlines. Lufthansa Group Boosting June Service Lufthansa Read more
What’s on the horizon for cruise lines. The importance of travel insurance. And perhaps an end to over-tourism. I listened in on a pair of travel webinars on Thursday, trying to glean some words of wisdom from people smarter than I am. I came away with some pretty interesting observations for my now regular FUTURE OF TRAVEL blog series. The second webinar of the day was put on by my friends at TravMedia (full disclosure, I’m on the advisory board for their IMM USA yearly event) and featured a number of top names, including Los Angeles Times Travel Editor Catharine Read more
Canada has, on occasion, been laughed at for being a tad on safe and conservative side of the tourism ledger. Given the climate we’re living in and the COVID-19 crisis, “safe” might be the best thing we have going for us, tourism consultant Greg Klassen says. Speaking on Hotelier Magazine’s Checking In podcast with host Rosanna Caira, Klassen said he worked for more than a decade at Destination Canada, selling the country to potential visitors. “We were always fighting this notion of Canada as a safe place,” said Klassen, a partner at Twenty31 consulting in Vancouver. “But people were going Read more
