Destinations
WestJet Expands Services from Toronto Pearson
WestJet is launching new non-stop services from Toronto Pearson to six destinations, flights that kicked off Friday (Dec. 11) with new twice-weekly service to West Palm Beach. Other new non-stop destinations include Huatulco, Merida and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, San Jose, Costa Rica and Sarasota, Florida. WestJet will operate 92 daily departures to 59 destinations from Toronto Pearson this winter, an increase of 7% and 13%, respectively, compared to last winter. WestJet's 2015 winter schedule also contains a number of new non-stop routes including Vancouver, Kitchener-Waterloo and...
Up For The Challenge
Canada’s newly-minted small business and tourism minister recently received an enthusiastic round of applause from the nation’s top tourism marketers and receptive companies when she announced that, in concert with her cabinet immigration colleague, she will reinstate visa-free travel for Mexican visitors, reports Montreal editor, Mike Dunbar in this week's digital edition of Canadian Travel Press. The Mexican short-stay market had been decimated by the previous Tory administration’s requirement that tourists obtain visas to land here. Minister Bardish Chagger made the...
Out and About With Fairmont
At the Fairmont Orchid Hawaii resort, guests are invited to explore Hawaii history as members of the Hui Holokai Beach Club Program offer walking sticks and guided tours of the same lava footpaths travelled by early Hawaiians. They share the stories, lore and history of Kalahuipuaa ("the gathering place"), which is now home to Mauna Lani Resort. Highlights include visits to early Hawaiian lava cave dwellings, petroglyphs (lava etchings) and sacred ahu (shrines). The guided hikes also take guests to inland fishponds that were once reserved for alii (royalty), along oceanfront...
Cross-Border Blues
The damage being inflicted on the Canada-US travel market by the tumbling Canadian dollar has yet to bottom out. In fact, the currency divide is accelerating the decline, according to the latest crop of figures from The US Department of Commerce, reports Montreal editor, Mike Dunbar in this week's digital edition of Travel Courier. In September 2013, some two million Canadians went south by land or air for a stay of one night or more. By the same month last year, the total had dropped to 1.8 million and this September’s tally was down to 1.6 million. That’s an 11.6% drop from...
WestJet’s Waterloo-Orlando Service Takes off
WestJet launched its new weekly non-stop seasonal service between Orlando, Florida and the Region of Waterloo International Airport yesterday (Dec. 10). WestJet has operated from Waterloo, Ont. since May 2007. In addition to the new Orlando service, the airline provides non-stop daily service between Waterloo and Calgary year-round with additional one-stop connections to a number of other Canadian cities. Orlando service will operate weekly through April 28, 2016 using WestJet’s Next Generation Boeing 737-700 series jet aircraft with 130...
Transcending Climate Change
The PATA New Tourism Frontiers Forum, held in the city of Legazpi in the Philippines, recently ended after a successful series of presentations themed as “Ecotourism -- Transcending Climate Change.” A total of 541 delegates from 20 countries attended the event, which ran three days in late November. The forum convened experts in various fields of ecotourism that are key to meeting the challenges of global climate change. Delegates from both the public and private sectors shared insights and experiences on ecotourism, adventure travel, climate change mitigation, crisis...
Hogwarts Coming to Hollywood
Get ready Harry Potter fans, it’s official: “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” will open at Universal Studios Hollywood on April 7, 2016, marking the highly anticipated arrival of the West Coast’s new immersive experience at The Entertainment Capital of L.A. The news coincides with the launch of a new marketing campaign “designed to sweep guests into the land’s magical world through the lens of imagination.” In making the announcement, Universal Studios Hollywood illuminated the land’s Hogwarts castle. More than five years in the making, and inspired by J.K....
On The Run in Kenya
Ephraim Mwaura and Eliud Lagat (pictured) want Canadian runners to experience life in the very fast lane. The transplanted Kenyans – both trained coaches in the National Coaching Certification Program – are guiding Canadian runners through the Toronto-area CanKen Sports Club, with Mwaura having been a sprinter in Kenya, while Lagat was a distance runner. “We try to train Canadians in the Kenyan style,” says Lagat, whose running background includes a blisteringly fast one hour and 53 seconds in a 2000 half-marathon and two-hour and 11-minute marathon in Hamburg in 2002, and...