Canadians have always had plenty of reasons to visit Ireland. Now they have 92 more. According to Tourism Ireland’s Alison Metcalfe, a full 92% of Irish adults aged 12 and older have received their full dose of COVID-19 vaccines. As if that’s not enough, the latest COVID Resilience Report from Bloomberg put the island nation as the best in the world at handling the virus. “Ireland was in a very strict lockdown and handled COVID I think pretty well,” Metcalfe, Executive Vice President USA and Canada for Tourism Ireland, told me in a one-on-one interview in downtown Toronto on Tuesday, Read more
WestJet
Special air arrangements between specific countries. A new Thailand health and safety program. A spike in U.S. hotel occupancy. And aid for Newfoundland tourism. I’ve got news on these and other topics today in my regular Future of Travel blog. BUBBLES AND BRIDGES We’ve gotten used to a whole lot of new buzz words of late, including “physical distancing.” Now comes a couple new concepts related to travel: “air bridges” and “travel bubbles.” They’re both similar concepts that could help spark a tourism resurgence in certain parts of the world, but only with certain travellers. Australia and New Zealand have 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
Go west, young man is a famous quote about the settling of the American West, a call for folks in the crowded Eastern United States to pack up for California and other, less crowded areas to the west. It could well be the slogan for air transportation in the crowded southern Ontario market. There’s been talk for years of building a Toronto Pearson relief airport in Pickering. That could still happen. But, in the meantime, airline folks are answering the call to avoid Pearson congestion (and high fees) by inducing folks to fly out of Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo, both an Read more
WestJet is doubling down on Toronto and adding more flights from Calgary and Kelowna, too. The moves will give Canadians lots more options for getting around Canada and escaping for some winter sun. WestJet today announced an additional 55 weekly non-stop flights this winter from Toronto Pearson International Airport to key domestic business destinations as well as popular sun spots in the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean. The service is part of the airline’s seasonal schedule for the winter of 2017-18. “This additional service means business travellers will be able to take advantage of increased frequencies and more convenient schedules Read more
