Destinations
Agents Enjoy A Taste Of Hong Kong
Hong Kong chefs clearly haven't been idle during the pandemic. In fact, Hong Kong chef and TV personality Christian Yang told a Baxter Media webcast focusing on Hong Kong's food and beverage scene that the very opposite is true. "I think this COVID period has really been able to create a new genre of cuisine in Hong Kong and in the bar scene as well," he said. Yang told viewers that Hong Kong chefs have been given more opportunity to create their own menus and are doing just that. As well, Chinese chefs are finding "ways to make Chinese food sexy again," he continued. Yang...
Israel Seeing Positive Signs For 2022
Israel has reopened and is putting the global pandemic behind it. But it is doing it carefully and safely. That was the message that Israel’s Minister of Tourism, Yoel Razvozov delivered in a video address to a small, masked and socially-distanced group of travel trade types and friends of Israel gathered in Toronto yesterday (Nov. 24) afternoon. Razvozov told his audience that since Israel had reopened its borders this month to fully vaccinated travellers it had welcomed 30,000, raising his optimism about what’s ahead in 2022. In fact, Israel’s Minister of Tourism noted...
Webjet Acquires CDN Travel Tech Company, Trip Ninja
Webjet Limited has agreed to acquire a Canadian based travel technology company, Trip Ninja, which has developed several key products for traditional and online travel agencies to automate the highly manual process of selling complex international itineraries. FareStructure is a technology that automates the combining of fares from carriers that do not have a cooperation or codeshare agreement in order to give customers the best priced itinerary. Traditionally this has been a fairly manual process, however, Trip Ninja is able to produce these results in seconds. For traditional travel...
Restaurants Canada Urges Expansion Of Support
As Parliament returns to work, Restaurants Canada is urging the government to ensure that hard-hit foodservice businesses will have enough federal support to get through the winter. Restaurants Canada president and CEO, Todd Barclay said that: “Restaurants are key to reviving main streets across Canada and feeding our country’s economic recovery, but first they need to survive. Federal support programs are currently too restrictive and will leave far too many hardworking restaurant operators out in the cold as they continue to cope with the ongoing pandemic.” Barclay...
St. Kitts & Nevis Make Changes To Protocols
St. Kitts & Nevis released details of changes that it was making to its protocols for fully vaccinated international travellers, nationals and locals arriving by air as of Nov. 23, 2021. Changes include: International travellers arriving by air who have completed their 24-hour Vacation in Place can now freely enjoy tours and attractions and explore Port Zante while cruise ships are in port. These excursions include: Brimstone Hill Fortress and National Park Carambola Beach Club Caribelle Batik Fairview Great House Palms Court Gardens Port Zante including...
Grenada Ready To Welcome Fully Vaccinated
Grenada has updated its Pure Safe Travel protocols, so that all fully vaccinated travellers entering Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, with a WHO-approved vaccination and a negative PCR test, taken no more than 72-hours before travel, will no longer be required to quarantine for 48-hours upon arrival in the country. This marks the first major update to the health and safety protocols since July 31 when the destination instituted a policy requiring all non-nationals be fully vaccinated to be granted entry. Along with the 48-hour quarantine removal, Grenada has made several...
Avoiding A Tailspin
A new report from Deloitte Canada takes a deep dive into the Canada’s aviation industry and some of the challenges it is facing right now. Dejan Markovic, Director and National Aviation Leader for Deloitte Canada, points out at one point in his conversation with Canadian Travel Press that: “There is no money for mistakes amidst the turbulence of what we’ve seen. Airlines, airports, ANSP’s are working off of borrowed cash and we need everyone to collaborate more closely so that the steps they take towards recovery and how those steps influence the ecosystem is accretive to positive...
CTM Goes In-Person In 2022
The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) has announced that the 40th edition of Marketplace will return to an in-person format in Spring 2022. Next year will mark 40 years of the Marketplace as well as the CHTA’s 60th anniversary. During the CHTA’s recent Annual General Meeting, CTM chairman Karen Whitt stated that a Spring date (late April or early May 2022) date is being considered for the event, which will be hosted by an as-yet-unnamed destination in the Caribbean. CTM’s success in 2021 enabled CHTA to “expand and reach well beyond our traditional North...