Destinations
Curaçao Is Calling
On July 1, Canada joined the list of select markets like Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, and The Netherlands to get the green light to visit the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao. Ahead of reopening to international travel, the destination introduced new hospitality protocols called “A Dushi Stay the Healthy Way.” In the first 12 days since the borders reopened, close to 3,000 stayover visitors headed to the colourful ABC island, mainly from Western Europe and the Caribbean region. “We’ve put certain prerequisites in. We are approaching this in a very methodical, gradual...
Costa Rica Has A New Tourism Minister
Gustavo Segura Sancho is Costa Rica’s new minister of tourism. Segura Sancho replaces María Amalia Revelo Raventós, who resigned due to reasons related to health. Segura has 23 years of experience in the tourism and hospitality industry and takes on the post with three major objectives in mind and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has generated the worst crisis in the history of the country and the tourism sector. His objectives are to achieve a gradual and safe reopening of international flights, to generate in the short term useful tools to alleviate the...
US Virgin Islands Remaining Vigilant
U.S. Virgin Islands Commissioner of Tourism, Joseph Boschulte says while the global community learns to adapt to COVID-19, protecting lives and livelihoods while ensuring the Territory's economic survival is the order of the day for the foreseeable future. Boschulte pointed out that while there was a 5.6% increase in overall positive cases over the past 24 hours (from 249 to 263), with increased testing, the Territory saw less than 2% of all persons tested in the past 24 hours delivering a positive result. Additionally, fatalities have remained low (at six deaths) and unchanged for...
Take A Ride Through Virginia’s Blue Ridge Region
Virginia's Blue Ridge region can help energetic people who want to get their feet wet when it comes to a dryland athletic activity. Taylor Spellman, spokeswoman for the Visit Virginia's Blue Ridge tourist board, says her area was designated as a Silver-Level Ride Center by the International Mountain Bicycling Association, the first destination on the east coast of the United States to receive that designation, leading local tourism officials to promote their area as America's East Coast Mountain Biking Capital. The Ride Center designation is awarded after a region's trails,...
CHTA Celebrates The Life Of Heinz Simonitsch
The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) saluted legendary hotelier Professor Heinz Simonitsch, CD, who passed away over the weekend, as the foremost pioneer of sustainable tourism development in the region. In a joint statement, the CHTA’s CEO and director general, Frank Comito and CHTA president, Patricia Affonso-Dass said: “Professor Heinz was a pioneer in the industry in so many ways, leading by example, providing exemplary service, infusing ‘Caribbean’ and ‘Jamaican’ into his product offering, and expanding the boundaries of the industry well beyond that of...
Jamaica Pays Tribute To Jim Proctor
Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, the honourable Edmund Bartlett paid tribute to Air Canada Vacation’s long-time product director, Jim Proctor. The Ministry of Tourism and its agencies were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Canadian travel industry veteran Jim Proctor, who died earlier this month at the age of 72. A long-time advocate for Destination Jamaica, Jim began his career at the Vancouver Airport working in a customer service role for Pacific Western Airlines in 1970. He later went on to join Air Canada Vacations (ACV) in 1982, where he worked for 24 years until...
Europe Ready To Welcome Canadians
Not surprisingly, the European Travel Commission’s (ETC) latest quarterly report -- European Tourism Trends and Prospects – reveals that during the first four months of the year, Europe saw a dramatic 44% decline in international tourist arrivals compared to the same period in 2019. It was a decrease that was in line with global performance, with eight out of 16 destinations reporting that arrivals to April/May registered falls in excess of 50%. Ahead of the summer season, tourism businesses are resuming activities and destinations across Europe are gradually re-opening their...
Making The Pivot
In this week’s issue of Canadian Travel Press, Destination Canada’s David Robinson talks about how this country’s tourism marketing organization is working with its partners to sell Canada to Canadians. Robinson points out that Destination Canada’s mandate involves supporting the visitor economy by producing regular data, market intelligence and industry analysis to help businesses market to international travellers, so we can grow Canada’s tourism sector. However, Destination Canada’s boss makes it clear that it will take a collective effort across the industry to help...