Five Questions with Hans DeHaan, Senior Director Canada, Lufthansa Group

1. What level is Lufthansa operating at these days? For the time being, the Lufthansa Group is offering long-haul flights from Frankfurt. SWISS will offer only three weekly long-haul flights a week to Newark (USA) in addition to a substantially reduced short- and medium-haul schedule. Lufthansa’s short-haul program will also be substantially reduced further, and only Lufthansa CityLine...

 

Coping with a new reality

How front-line travel agents are dealing with COVID-19

ASHLEY ROCHEFORT Two weeks ago, COVID-19 had yet to impact on the travel agency business here in Canada and agents were skeptical about the severity of the virus. They were still in the process of selling travel, encouraging their clients to follow through with their March Break plans, and many were in the process of preparing for their own adventures abroad. Together, we’ve all learned...

 

A humanitarian crisis

Response to cruise ships stranded at sea tests our deepest human values

In a powerful, and personal, message, Holland America Line president, Orlando Ashford asks the question that we should all be asking ourselves today. “During a time when we’re afraid to go out, fearful of others as possible COVID-19 carriers, how do we ensure we continue acting in ways consistent with our common human dignity?” Although two HAL ships, Zaandam and Rotterdam, have...

 

Agencies deserve federal assistance, former ACTA chief says

IAN STALKER Former ACTA president Ron Pradinuk is giving this country’s travel agencies a good shot at riding out the coronavirus crisis, provided the federal government doesn’t turn its back on them when it comes to providing promised financial assistance to small businesses seeing their revenues plummet in these days of self-isolation. Different sectors of a travel industry that has...

 

Finding a safe harbour

Ontario agency owner aboard HAL's Zaandam

IAN STALKER For the past week, Canadian Travel Press has been following the progress of two Holland America ships – Zaandam and Rotterdam – as they waited to receive permission to dock at Port Everglades, Florida. On board, along with close to 250 Canadian passengers, was the owner of an Ontario travel agency, raising concerns amongst his staff here in Canada. Fortunately, both ships...

 

Our world became so small, so fast

BOB MOWAT How did the world become so small, so fast? If I was 12 years old, reading all of those end-of-the world, science fiction novels that I used to read, I couldn’t imagine a plot line more frightening than the one that the world is living today. I’m not 12 though, and I’ve spent 40 years watching the travel and tourism industry grow into a massive economic force, and in...

 

Inuvik company struggles with COVID-19’s impact

IAN STALKER Inuvik, NWT, is far from this country’s major tourism centres, but that doesn’t mean that those involved in the Arctic community’s tourist trade have been immune to the COVID-19 crunch. The remote community of several thousand – found north of the Arctic Circle and at the end of the Dempster Highway, which winds its way north from Dawson City, Yukon Territory – is home...

 

5 Questions

1 You ran the Mexico Tourism Board’s Toronto Office for years. You sometimes had to deal with fallout from the deaths of some Canadians in Mexico and SARS and September 11. How do you think those situations compared to the COVID-19 crisis? Yes, there were some unfortunate manmade fatalities we had to deal with, as well as natural disasters that impacted the tourism sector activity and image...

 

Governments must act now to save industry: WTTC

An existential threat

MIKE DUNBAR Global travel and tourism is in a fight for survival and governments everywhere need to take immediate and concrete steps to ensure the sector’s important contribution to their economies continues through the long term. In an open letter signed by World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) president Gloria Guevara, she identified three courses of action states have to take,...

 

TIAC, Destination Canada call for help, search for solutions

TED DAVIS A strongly worded call for federal government funding to support Canada’s travel and tourism industries during the COVID-19 virus crisis was announced by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) last week. A webinar presented by Destination Canada on March 20 gave TIAC president and CEO Charlotte Bell the opportunity to express deep concerns for the future of these...