Boring sucks!

Mandy Farmer has a vision that takes hotels out of the ordinary

ANN RUPPENSTEIN When the pandemic hit, Mandy Farmer felt an immense amount of pressure not to be the one responsible for driving the family business that dates back to 1986 into the ground. “I truly felt that I was going to be the one to lose the family’s business and that is an amazing amount of pressure to have on oneself. It was after realizing like yeah, I could lose the family...

 

Remembering Edith Baxter

Canadian Travel Press’ Editor-In-Chief And Baxter Media's Co-Founder Was Truly An Industry Icon

Baxter Media management and staff is deeply saddened to report the passing of its one and only, Editor-In-Chief, Edith Baxter. Edith passed peacefully at her home in Toronto, surrounded by her family on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. For over 50 years, Mrs. B – as she was known throughout the industry, both in Canada and around the world -- helmed the editorial operations of Baxter Media,...

 

Sailing to success

Just ask, the answer may surprise you

ANN RUPPENSTEIN fter the Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the UK issued a blanket statement in July advising against all cruising, Ellen Bettridge, the President & CEO of Uniworld Boutique River Cruises, penned 500 words about how river cruises shouldn’t be compared to ocean cruising and sent it off to The Telegraph. [caption id="attachment_141252" align="alignright" width="300"]...

 

A life of adventure exploring the collective energy of travel

Women in travel: Cedar Swan

ANN RUPPENSTEIN From bringing the first group of travellers to HMS Erebus — a shipwreck discovered west of O’Reilly Island in Nunavut from the Franklin Expedition of 1845, which remained clouted in mystery for 170 years — to working alongside the likes of Robert Bateman, Doris McCarthy and Margaret Atwood, Cedar Swan has many stories to tell from memorable Arctic expeditions. “Our...

 

Telling Canada’s indigenous tourism story

Women in travel: Teresa Ryder

ANN RUPPENSTEIN As the director of business development for the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada, Teresa Ryder’s career has taken her from coast to coast to coast to witness living cultural experiences like throat singing lessons with Inuit throat singers in Iqaluit. “Being able to go and meet people in their communities, in their space, and learn about all of our Indigenous...

 

Imagination has no boundaries

Women in Travel Roxanne Joyal

  ANN RUPPENSTEIN As a teenager, Roxanne Joyal spent a year abroad volunteering with mothers and children with AIDS in Thailand and starting a fair-trade program for women in Kenya to sell their beadwork to visitors. Although she went on to study international relations at Stanford University, earn a Rhodes scholarship and a law degree from Oxford, and clerk for the Supreme Court of...

 

Living life outside the bubble

Women in Travel Monique Gomel

ANN RUPPENSTEIN After working for iconic brands like L’Oréal and EA Sports, where she helped launch the company’s first female targeted product and its first foray into the fitness segment – which went on to be their highest selling title on the Wii platform – Monique Gomel was drawn to the travel industry. “One of the things about Rocky Mountaineer was I was interested in...

 

Driving the change

ANN RUPPENSTEIN The founder of Women on Wheels, a program by the Azad Foundation that empowers resource-poor women in India to become professional drivers and enables them to gain remunerative livelihoods with dignity, says the idea behind her business model was to break the glass ceiling. “There’s almost like a cement ceiling – it’s very tough to break because they haven’t had the...

 

Women in Travel: Alison Hickey

It’s all about empowering the team

ANN RUPPENSTEIN With Master’s degrees in Applied Science and Industrial Engineering from Dalhousie University, Alison Hickey got into the travel industry organically. The president of Kensington Tours, which specializes in tailor-made luxury tours, custom tours, safaris and travel packages, previously held leadership roles with companies like the Bank of Montreal, Maple Leaf Foods, and...

 

Women in Travel: Marlie Morrison

Selling the ever-changing magic of Disney

ANN RUPPENSTEIN (Photo above: Marlie Morrison at Ronto Roasters, locatedin the Black Spire Outpost, during the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Resort.) Leading Disney teams across Asia Pacific and Canada, Marlie Morrison says the factors that drive respective markets to travel to its theme parks vary like night and day. “It’s so different, which is fascinating. I...