To celebrate the return of Pride around the globe, Airbnb is revealing the top 50 worldwide Pride celebrations this summer. Three Canadian cities made the list. Toronto finished seventh, Montreal was 25th and Vancouver 28th. This ranking is based on total nights booked over respective Pride weekends worldwide, looking at bookings made on Airbnb from January to May 2022. The list uncovers nights booked in each respective city over their Pride weekends this year, with bookings hitting a significant milestone: tens of thousands of nights have already been booked over the top 50 Pride weekends for this summer, bringing Pride weekends in Read more
Rome
WestJet this week launched its long-awaited service from Calgary to Rome with the departure of WestJet flight 32 from YYC to Italy. This first scheduled connection between Calgary and Rome, operated on WestJet’s 320-seat 787 Dreamliner, marked a major milestone in the recovery of Alberta’s travel and tourism industry. “The launch of our highly anticipated Calgary-Rome service is an incredible milestone for both WestJet and our guests, as we’ve been looking forward to this moment, for more than two years,” said Angela Avery, WestJet, Executive Vice-President, External Affairs. “With its rich history and culture, it is no surprise that our Read more
Air Transat is pleased to be back in Barcelona, Venice and Brussels, after several months of forced suspension due to COVID-19. Back in Barcelona The airline will operate this weekend its first flight between Toronto and Barcelona (TS248), which will be offered twice a week at the height of the season. Until the end of October, the airline will operate these flights with its new-generation Airbus A321neoLR aircraft. Air Transat offers a selection of direct routes to Spain from Montreal and Toronto: Departure city Destination Starting # of direct flights per week* Montreal Barcelona April 13 3 Montreal Madrid Read more
Allianz Partners has published its top summer destinations for Americans for 2022. Allianz officials said “revenge” travel appears to going to an entirely new level as people seek experiences they missed out during the pandemic. It’s also notable that big cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Boston are back on travelers’ radar. Additionally, Allianz research showed that 75 per cent of Americans will travel domestically this summer, up 16 per cent from last year. Here are the top 10 domestic choices, followed by top international destinations and European destinations. Alas, no mention of Canada. DOMESTIC ORLANDO SEATTLE HONOLULU/OAHU Read more
Canadian searches for international flights are outweighing those for domestic trips, but flights within Canada remain very popular, a new study says. Kayak.com looked at flight searches for the week of April 10 and compared them three years ago, prior to the pandemic, and then to a month ago. For three year comparisons, they found Dubai led the way, with searches up 105% since April of 2019. Next was Halifax at 97%, followed by Istanbul at 90%. For month-over-month comparisons, searches for flights to Frankfurt were on top, with a gain of 17% from March to April of this year. Read more
