This item appeared earlier on Postmedia/Sun Media websites in Canada. The Caribbean is open for business. Yes, there was damage to a number of islands from hurricanes over the past couple months. Canadian airlines have pretty much shut down winter service to battered St. Maarten. Puerto Rico is still in bad shape, as is Barbuda, Dominica and parts of other islands. But there was little or no damage to most major Caribbean destinations, including Jamaica, The Bahamas, Barbados, Antigua and the Cayman Islands. In destinations that were hit, work is proceeding nicely and many hotels and resorts have already re-opened. Read more
Hurricane Maria
It was expected. But it’s still a harsh blow. My friends at Travel Pulse Canada say Air Canada has announced that it’s cancelling its service to St. Martin/Sint Maarten for the remainder of the 2017/18 winter season. The island, a hugely popular winter destination for Canadians, was severely damaged by Hurricane Irma. Many resorts are still closed following the hurricane, including the lovely Westin Dawn Beach Resort on the east side of the island. It’s not a big issue for Canadians, who have tons of great options in parts of the Caribbean that weren’t hit by Hurricane Irma or by Read more
I wrote some posts earlier this week about what’s happening with Hurricanes Irma and Maria and how travel is being affected. But I didn’t have time to do a full-on, exhaustive story. The New York Times, however, did just a story that I found online today; a fine wrap-up that shows just what folks can expect and where you can take your holidays in the next little while. As I wrote earlier, it looks like St. Martin’s tourism sector has been devastated. Sunwing has cancelled all flights through April, while Air Canada has said it won’t be flying down this Read more
What a mess. As folks in Puerto Rico try to cope with flooding and the lack of electricity from the effects of Hurricane Maria, the post-Maria work continues for St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and in poor Dominica, which bore the full force of the hurricane’s wrath earlier this week. The Caribbean Journal today was reporting that “Hurricane Maria clobbered Puerto Rico on Wednesday, sending it into a total island-wide blackout, with reports of significant property damage.” Top that off with the severe damage done by Hurricane Irma to St. Martin/St. Maarten, Barbuda, Puerto Rico, Anguilla, Cuba and Read more
This a crushing blow for the island of St. Maarten/St. Martin, one of the favourite Caribbean retreats for Canadians every winter. Sunwing, a popular supplier of flights from Canada to the Dutch/French island, says they’re pulling out of all flights through the end of next April because of major damage caused by Hurricane Irma. The island’s airport was badly hurt by the storm, and many hotels also were badly damaged. That’s hard enough on folks who live there, but losing thousands of Canadian visitors will mean an even bigger loss for an island where folks rely on tourism to feed Read more
