Destinations
Hong Kong: An Update On The Latest Developments
Baxter Media invites agents to attend an important webinar with the Hong Kong Tourism Board next Friday (May 29) at 2 p.m. (EST). The webinar will be presented by Yuen Kan Wong, Marketing Manager, Canada, for the Hong Kong Tourism Board. In this webinar, you will hear how Hong Kong has handled COVID-19, and for those who are new to the destination or need a refresher, they will be providing basic destination information, updating you on the newest developments, as well as providing a glimpse of what you or your clients can experience in Hong Kong. During the webinar, Yuen will also...
France Has A Plan For Tourism
Earlier in May, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe brought together major players in the country’s tourism industry for an inter-ministerial meeting alongside Christian Mantei, President of the Administration Council and Caroline Leboucher, Director-General of Atout France. The Tourism Plan that he announced outlines the numerous concrete measures for providing support to this sector, which has been severely affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. During the fifth Inter-ministerial Tourism Committee meeting, the Prime Minister stressed that “tourism was probably facing the...
Barbados Moves To Phase 3
Barbados has now entered Phase 3 of the reopening of its economy following its suspension of non-essential services in the fight against COVID-19. Prime Minister of Barbados, the Hon. Mia Amor Mottley said the decision was made based on public health recommendations, and outlined the updated protocols which she stressed will be constantly under review. To date, there have been 88 confirmed cases, 68 total recoveries and seven deaths. The active cases remain in isolation and are receiving care from the Ministry of Health and Wellness. The protocols established by the Ministry of...
Too Early For Predictions
Due to COVID-19, the Canadian government closed the Canadian Arctic to cruise travel entirely for 2020, and Adventure Canada was forced to cancel its entire season. “While we were disappointed, we wholeheartedly supported these measures – we visit many small, and due to their remoteness, vulnerable communities, and the health and safety of the places we have the privilege of visiting is our top priority,” Cedar Swan, the CEO of Adventure Canada told Travel Courier. “What we’ve seen in response is that the enthusiasm for polar travel is there. 48% of our Arctic clients have...
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,...