It’s All Good

A trio of top industry executives were in Toronto this week (May 7) for the annual Best West Leisure Summit, talking about the latest trends and issues that may or may not impact on the upcoming summer travel season.

On hand for the event were Best Western’s senior vice-president of marketing & sales, Dorothy Dowling; CAA’s vice-president, travel, Brenda Kyllo; and TripAdvisor’s head of industry relations, Brian Payea. The hour-long Q&A session was moderated by Granite Productions’ Bryson Forbes.

As for their forecast for the summer of 2015, well, each and everyone panelist indicated that they expected that it will be a strong summer season.

Observing that for the past number of years travel has been turning in a solid performance, Best Western’s Dowling told the audience on hand for the Summit that once again the industry would be seeing double-digit growth.

TripAdvisor’s Payea noted that TripAdvisor is seeing significant search activity for Canadian destinations and “tremendous” activity for the 2015 summer season.

As Kyllo sees it, overall the summer looks good, and while the exchange rate between the Canadian and US dollar might have an impact, that would be offset by the drop in gas prices.

Otherwise, she noted that she expected US traffic to hold up; Europe is strong; and the Caribbean is selling well, so all in all, she expects to see Canadians “hitting the open skies and the open roads.”

The annual Best Western Leisure Summit dealt with a variety of issues ranging from the dollar to trip planning, technology to traveller frustration and a whole lot more.

Watch for a full report on the Summit in an upcoming issue of Canadian Travel Press.

Seen in the photo (l-r) are TripAdvisor’s head of industry relations, Brian Payea; Best Western’s senior vice-president of marketing & sales, Dorothy Dowling; CAA’s vice-president, travel, Brenda Kyllo; and Summit moderator, Bryson Forbes.