Destinations
Destinations Begin Process Of Reopening
Calling it a “calculated risk,” Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte announced that as of June 3, people would be allowed to travel to and from Italy and between the country’s various regions. And for travellers from EU countries, there will be no 14-day quarantine requirement. And a number of destinations are beginning to move towards opening up their tourism economies in the coming weeks. Saint Lucia Targets June 4 Using a phased approach, Saint Lucia says it will begin reopening its tourism sector beginning on June 4. Saint Lucia’s Minister of Tourism Honourable...
Toolkit For Tourism
Tourism HR Canada is developing the COVID-19 Tourism Workforce Recovery Toolkit to help the industry get up and running as quickly as possible and build resiliency for the medium- to long-term. The industry can now sign up at www.tourismrecovery.ca (English) and www.relancetourisme.ca (French) to receive access and updates as Modules are launched in the coming weeks. The full COVID-19 Tourism Workforce Recovery Toolkit will be released in June with a French version immediately following. Philip Mondor, president and CEO of Tourism HR Canada, said: “Canada’s tourism industry will...
When Will Domestic Travel Start Again?
In a special report for Canadian Travel Press, Eric Barber writes that if the Canadian government was looking for any guidelines on how to put the travel and tourism industry in Canada back to work, they might want to consider a new report from Germany’s Kompetenzzentrum Tourismus des Tourismus and represents the first document in tourism that plots a timeline for the return of tourism in Germany based on select factors: politics, economics and science. The report identifies four phases of COVID-19, which are represented by Shutdown, Loosening, Revival & Normalization. ...
Need To Compete
IATA -- describing travel as being in a “free fall” and the airline industry as being “bare bones” due to the impact of COVID-19 -- is advising Caribbean governments to cut passenger taxes if they wish to be competitive when service is restored. Peter Cerda, IATA’s regional vice president for the Americas, says that the state of the global airline sector -- including carriers in the Caribbean -- is “as bad as one could expect,” and the industry will need government support to resume any form of service. In this week’s Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) podcast,...
The Big Divide
Americans appear to be divided on both the issue of travelling and reopening the country to visitors. In its latest tracking study, Longwoods International found that 40% of Americans feel safe traveling outside their communities, while 33% do not feel safe taking trips at this time and 27% are undecided. As for reopening their communities to visitors, Longwoods found – in a new line of questioning – that 35% are supportive, 35% oppose the reopening and 31% are undecided. Amir Eylon, president and CEO of Longwoods International, observed that: “Public support for traveling...
GTM 2020 Goes Digital In June
The German National Tourist Board is going virtual with the biggest incoming workshop for Destination Germany from June 22 to June 24. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the GNTB in close cooperation with the tourism association of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as the hosting state have decided to move the physical Germany Travel Mart (GTM) to 2021. Petra Hedorfer, Chairwoman of the GNTB Executive Board, explains: “In order to foster and further enhance the key contacts of our partners of Germany tourism with international buyers and multipliers, we are going to offer the GTM in the form of a...
There’s A Sandals Virtual Fam Today
Sandals Resorts recently introduced a new series of virtual fam trips, created exclusively for Canadian agents, allowing them to visit Sandals and Beaches Resorts across the Caribbean – from the comfort of their own home – all this week. Due to popular demand, the original session for the Eastern Caribbean has now been divided into two: Thurs May 14 -- Saint Lucia 11:00am – 11:45am EDT Experience the three Sandals Resorts on the lush island of Saint Lucia, and the exclusive exchange program between...
A Lifeline For The Industry
According to GlobalData, domestic tourism may well be a critical lifeline for tourist destinations, like Thailand, that have been hit hard by COVID-19. The data and analytics company points out that the impacts from COVID-19 have been felt worldwide with travel restrictions, lockdowns and cancellations of major events. Pre-COVID-19, tourist destinations were predicted to hit 1.6 billion international arrivals globally in 2020, and tourism is a major contributor to the economy, providing 10% to global GDP. Amber Barnes, travel and tourism analyst at GlobalData, observes that:...