How are travel advisors responding to the COVID-19 crisis?

LARRY MOGELONSKY, MBA, P. Eng. www.hotelmogel.com In the first part or a two-part panel discussion, author and hotel specialist Larry Mogelonsky talks with travel advisors about how their role is changing in the world of COVID-19 and a whole lot more. The current pandemic is a defining event for the travel industry. What was considered ordinary is now highly complex, if even feasible....

 

Situation is ‘dire’ for Ontario’s attractions

Industry association looking for help to survive

IAN STALKER The CEO of an association representing Ontario’s diverse attractions is bluntly warning that current government relief efforts are not enough to keep many of the province’s tourism draws financially afloat and losing attractions in turn would be hugely damaging to the economies of the communities they’re in. Troy Young of Attractions Ontario says nearly all Canadian...

 

One adversary, one challenge, one goal

Let’s get through this together

BRETT WALKER In this week’s issue of Canadian Travel Press, industry veteran Brett Walker offers a thoughtful contribution on the challenges that he believes the industry faces in the war against COVID-19 and, no matter what those challenges are, hope that the industry will persevere. We’re a positive industry by nature but COVID-19 is pushing our sunny disposition to the...

 

Final thoughts

Fix things now, because there's always going to be another disruptor

RICHARD VANDERLUBBE This is the final part of a three part series written by tripcentral.ca’s Richard Vanderlubbe. This week he writes about agents and the need to pay them properly for the services they provide to both their customers and their suppliers. And about the fact that they also need the right tools to be able to do their jobs effectively and efficiently. [caption...

 

G Adventures’ founder weighs in on the future of travel

Q&A with Bruce Poon Tip

Over the past 30 years, Bruce Poon Tip has averaged almost 200,000 miles a year on flights as the founder of G Adventures. When COVID-19 hit, he spent his newfound time at home penning Unlearn: The Year the Earth Stood Still, a free instabook about how the industry has an opportunity to make changes as travel becomes the world’s largest start-up economy. In a Q&A with CTP, Poon Tip...

 

Will you be ready?

It appears that business may begin operating again sooner than we may have thought. It is thus important for employers and managers to think ahead, and not think of going back to work as simply flipping a switch. There will be significant differences from “before” and there are issues that you can think about and address now in order to make the transition to opening operations easier to...

 

Health, safety on top of itinerary for Celebrity

IAN STALKER Celebrity Cruises says it's determined that its passengers return home hale and hearty after sailing with it when it resumes operations later this year. Celebrity, like its competitors, has seen its fleet idled because of the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in grim media news reports of cruise ship passengers being quarantined in their cabins as their vessels struggled...

 

Shifting Attention

Destination Canada targets domestic tourism to get back on track

IAN STALKER Destination Canada is shifting its attention to domestic tourism as it plans to get this country's tourist trade back on its feet. Interim president David Robinson told a recent webinar that domestic travel was “not a major focus” for the national tourism promotion body in the past but that's changed during a time of international travel largely grinding to a halt because of...

 

Goway prepares to mark 50+1 milestone in 2021

IAN STALKER Goway Travel isn't holding its 50th birthday bash this year as was planned some time ago but company founder and president Bruce Hodge says the Toronto-based firm will instead celebrate the start of its second half-century when 2021 rolls around. For some time, Goway had been planning to mark reaching the 50-year mark this year but the company decided to cancel the...

 

Practical considerations

Agents, clients, suppliers – time to change the rules

RICHARD VANDERLUBBE In the second part of a three-part series, Richard Vanderlubbe considers how consumers will behave once COVID-19 is behind us. One thing he makes abundantly clear is that the industry is going need the government’s help (at all levels) to make sure people know that it is safe to travel. [caption id="attachment_137638" align="alignright" width="300"]...