TRAVELHotNews.com Magazine

HAVING A BALL IN BARBADOS

Barbados Charity Ball’s 5th annual edition features first official visit from Prime Minister David Thompson
Charmaine Pang

On Saturday evening, the Bajan community in Toronto and beyond celebrated the 5th edition of the annual Barbados Charity Ball, held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This year’s theme was ‘A Magical Underwater Journey’ and approximately 600 partygoers attended. This year’s Charity Ball also had the honour of introducing Barbados’ new Prime Minister, the Honourable David Thompson, who made his first official visit to Canada. Prime Minister Thompson remarked on Barbados’ transformation from an agricultural-based economy, albeit a “jewel in the Empire’s crown”, to one with a reputable business and financial centre. The diversification of the economy has created many opportunities for Barbadians both at home and abroad. [Full text and pictures]

ANDERSON LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE

Anderson Vacations Launches CanadaTravelSolution.com
Anderson Vacations has announced the official launch of their new website – CanadaTravelSolution.com. The website is said to provide a solution for information and tools to sell Canadian travel packages and tours. Visitors to the website will find information on specific Canadian destinations, event calendars, tour itineraries, prices, and details, and their shopping cart Canada F.I.T. booking tool.

SUNWING’S WINTER BROCHURE

Winter 2008/2009 brochure now available

Hot off the presses, and earlier than ever before, Sunwing Vacations has announced the release of its winter 2008/2009 winter brochures. The operator continues to expand in Western Canada with flights offered from all provinces. In keeping with its policy of “bringing the plane to your door” - whereby Sunwing offers affordable and convenient holidays to the sun to millions of Canadians in smaller cities – departures from Kelowna have been added. The Western Canada brochure will feature 16 destinations and over 200 hotels. The Ontario version now numbers over 300 pages and features departures from eight cities. The Quebec version will weigh in with almost 300 pages and feature expanded itineraries from Montréal, Québec City and Bagotville/Saguenay. In Atlantic Canada, Sunwing will continue to offer a wider selection than any other tour operator, with departures from eight cities throughout the region. [Full text and pictures]

CSTAR’S INJUNCTION DENIED

Canada’s Competition Tribunal decided not to grant CSTAR’s request to prevent IATA’s paper ticket removal
CSTAR reported that on Friday evening, Canada's Competition Tribunal decided not to grant CSTAR's request for an interim injunction to prevent IATA from going forward with the elimination of paper tickets. While a temporary injunction would have been a "desirable initial outcome, the lack of an injunction in no way prevents CSTAR's case from being heard." The next phase of the case will be a Tribunal conference call among the parties on June 2, 2008, at 10:30AM. While the Tribunal's reasons against the injunction have yet to be officially published, the substance of the reasons appears to revolve around IATA's assertion that an injunction against IATA would fail to compel GDSs from terminating paper tickets and that an injunction would further fail to compel individual carriers to accept paper tickets after June 2, 2008. [Full text and pictures]

SUNQUEST SAVINGS OFFER

Save up to $600 per couple on selected packages on all new bookings until June 4, 2008

Starting May 31, and running until June 4, Sunquest is running a consumer promotion where your clients can save up to $600 per couple off the price of a Sunquest package for departures up to June 25, 2008. The savings vary by region. Clients out west will save up to $600 per couple, in Ontario they save up to $500 per couple and in Quebec they will save up to $200 per couple on all sun packages. This pricing is in addition to the already reduced prices on the operator's June packages. For example, with this promotion, spend 7 nights at the 4-star Grand Paradise Bavaro in Punta Cana for just $197 per person plus tax (June 7 departure, Toronto gateway), or 7 nights at the 4-star Holiday Inn Sunspree in Montego Bay for just $447 per person plus tax (June 9-16 departures, Toronto), or 7 nights at the 4+-star Royal Solaris Los Cabos for only $467 per person plus tax (June 14 departure, Calgary). [Full text and pictures]

KOREA RIDES THE RAILS

Korea Tourism offers spring METRO destination promotion
Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) will launch their METRO promotion nationally June 3rd over four weeks to have transit riders throughout each of the four cities selected in Canada to win a chance to win a trip for two to Korea. Set to run Tuesdays over four weeks from June 3rd to June 30th in the east – Toronto and Ottawa and in the west - Calgary and Vancouver. There will be four different articles focusing on the many different regions and activities that Korea can offer travellers from Canada. Under Korea’s brand – Korea, Sparkling the topics include Week 1 – Incheon International Airport is a gateway to Korea and Asia, Korean food and next year is Visit Incheon 2009 year, Pre & Post Beijing Olympic tours and major events in Korea in the near future. Week 2 – Unique Korean Experiences, Week 3 – Experience Korean Sparkling Culture and Week 4 – Korea, Gateway to Asia with stopover and transit tours highlighted. [Full text and pictures]

AMERICANS FLYING LESS

Americans made 41M fewer trips by plane this year because of hassles: Survey
Canadian Press
Nearly half of American air travellers would fly more if it were easier, and more than one-fourth said they skipped at least one air trip in the past 12 months because of the hassles involved, according to an industry survey. The Travel Industry Association, which commissioned the survey released Thursday, estimated that the 41 million forgone trips cost the travel industry $18.1 billion - including $9.4 billion to airlines, $5.6 billion to hotels and $3.1 billion - and it cost federal, state and local authorities $4.2 billion in taxes in the past 12 months. When 28 per cent of air travellers avoided an average of 1.3 trips each, that resulted in 29 million leisure trips and 12 million business trips not being taken, the researchers estimated. [Full text and pictures]