The new Forbes hotel, spa and restaurant rankings contain good news for travellers in Canada and for Canadian properties. The Forbes people today put out a “sneak peek” of their 2021 ratings. As part of the 2021 awards selection, six hotels and spas from Toronto-based Four Seasons were awarded new five-star ratings, adding to the existing 2020 award winners. A total of 46 Four Seasons hotels and resorts, 13 spas and two restaurants have received the five-star designation. Three Four Seasons properties received a new five-star designation this year, including Four Seasons Hotel Montreal and Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia Comcast Read more
Montreal
An Expedia Canada study finds Canadians are definitely staying home this summer. I also have a look at a free $50 offer for restaurants, attractions and other places that the Explorers’ Edge tourism area (including Muskoka) is offering to locals and seasonal residents, plus a new celebrity chef for Air Canada and a new, apartment-style hotel in Montreal that sounds perfect for social distancing. My Future of Travel blog for July 20. Canadians Staying Close to Home This Summer This comes as no surprise. But it’s quite telling. An Expedia Canada study released today (July 20) finds that Canadians are Read more
Leave it to a Montrealer to propose a municipal “menage a trois” to promote tourism. Speaking at an Air Canada program at the Montreal airport Marriott Hotel on Thursday, Tourisme Montreal President and CEO Yves Lalumiere noted that a tourism roundtable group hasn’t been able to convince the federal government to loosen intra-provincial regulations and encourage more tourism across Canada. Lalumiere said he’s working with Tourism Ottawa and Destination Toronto on a “cheat on your city” campaign that would encourage a kind of unofficial bubble of tourism between the three cities. Ottawa folks could cheat on their town by visiting Read more
A month or two ago, when all this crazy coronavirus stuff hit the fan, I suggested that 2020 may be The Summer of Canada given our reluctance (and, for now, inability) to travel anywhere else over the next few months, and given the low Canadian dollar and the damage COVID-19 has done to our collective pocketbooks. I’m taking another look at the issue today given a Conference Board of Canada study I spotted the other day (and one I referenced on the weekend during my live interview on CTV News). Today’s Future of Travel Blog also looks at a new Read more
Finding a great meal or that perfect airport shop just got even easier for Canadians. Apple Maps airport feature, which allows users to see amazingly detailed plans of multiple levels of airports all over the world, now includes great mapping features at both Montreal/Trudeau (YUL) and Quebec City/Lesage (YQB). Those are both hugely popular airports for Canadians, especially with the summer travel season pretty much upon us. The maps previously were available at Toronto Pearson (YYZ), Vancouver (YVR) and Edmonton (YEG). The Apple Maps app allows users to browse hundreds of shops, restaurants, or restrooms located within the airport or Read more
