● For Canada, will there be no recovery until Q3? Canada’s tourism minister says the nation’s tourism industry won’t be able to rely on revenue from international visitors for many more months. In a conversation with CBC news Randy Boissonnault, Canada’s minister of tourism, said there is unlikely to be any inbound tourists until the third quarter of 2022. A little more than three quarters of tourism spending comes from domestic travelers, but spend less than a quarter compared to international visitors. “Domestic travel is a crucial step but will not be able to fill the revenue gap from the halt of international travel,” said Beth Potter, CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. Click here for the complete CBC article.
● In Germany, it’s going to be a strong summer but a long recovery. From FVW/TravelTalk: “The German Travel Association (DRV) expects strong summer business in 2022, as people willing to travel will catch up on their holidays postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic. But there is a long way to go before the travel industry fully recovers. “The new year remains challenging for the travel industry as the Corona pandemic continues,” says DRV President Norbert Fiebig after analyzing the latest DRV business survey of 550 respondents. The majority of respondents do not expect a sustained recovery for the travel business until 2023 (43 percent) or even 2024 (37 percent) – 16 percent even later. Click here for complete article.
● New leaders named during the past year for the tourism industry in Argentina. Here are the top five (from REPORTURcom.ar.)
● Gay Travel Award winners named. Delta Air Lines has received the award for best airline in the 2021 Gay Gravel Awards, which are presented annually by GayTravel.com. There were more than 30 awards given out in categories ranging from hotels and resorts to golf resorts and destinations. Said GayTravel Chief Visionary Officer Steve Rohrlick: “This year has been another challenging one for travelers. With the pandemic ebbing and flowing across the globe and the uncertainty related to the latest Omicron variant, many are restricted from traveling or waiting for a safer time. The Gay Travel Awards affords us all a moment to focus on the industry’s best as a prologue to getting back out there.” The Gay Travel Awards support and promote LGBTQ+ travel and tourism by identifying and rewarding select destinations, properties, events, influencers, and other organizations that exemplify a spirit of inclusiveness and hospitality excellence. The winners lead by example and inspire other inclusive companies and brands. Click here to see the complete list of winners.
● Tour Operator ATI signs partnership with Discover Long Island (New York): Going public with its unique way of partnering with a destination, AmericanTours International (ATI)—one of the largest tour operators in North America—has formed a strategic partnership with the destination in which the operator will be adding new hotel and excursion product throughout Long Island to further develop the destination for their domestic and international clients.
ATI’s clients will be able to tailor their very own Long Island-focused packages utilizing ATI’s ‘Drive America’ road trip building platform. The operator will be adding new hotel and excursion product throughout Long Island to further develop the destination for their domestic and international clients. “There has never been a better time to rekindle old relationships and create new ones, if we learnt something from the pandemic, is the importance of relationships,” said Kristen Reynolds, President and CEO of Discover Long Island. Discover Long Island’s main mission is to represent Suffolk and Nassau Counties, which are east of Queens, NYC. The two counties have a combined population of 2.8 million people.
● Air & Space Museum’s National Mall Building to Close March 28 Through Fall 2022: The National Air and Space Museum’s flagship building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. will temporarily close to the public March 28, 2022, until fall 2022 to complete work on the first new galleries in the west wing of the building. The museum has been undergoing a major renovation since late 2018.
Officials said that this closure is needed to ensure the continued safety of visitors. To provide the best visitor experience, the museum’s west-end galleries will open all at one time; their opening date will be announced next year. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the museum’s companion facility in Chantilly, Virginia, will operate as usual with regular visiting hours and events. The museum will also continue doing virtual events and has robust online materials about the collection.
The second half of the project will begin at the end of March 2022 with the deinstallation of the east wing of the building. The completion of that wing, the culmination of the project and the opening of the remaining exhibitions are currently scheduled for 2025. For more information, call 202.633.2214.
● A reminder: National Parks need help to prep for the peak travel season in 2022. Perhaps no other element of the leisure tourism infrastructure is as important to international travel to the United States than is its system of 400 U.S. national parks, 560 national wildlife refuges and nearly 250 million acres of other public lands managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior and its National Park Service. From the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone to the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. Travel Association notes, America’s national parks and monuments are a major draw for visitors from across the U.S. and around the world. Beyond their natural beauty and historic significance, these sites also contribute heavily to America’s local and national economies.
“Unfortunately, many of these sites are suffering from a severe maintenance backlog,” says US Travel, “leaving national parks facilities like campgrounds, roads, restrooms and information centers in dire need of improvements.” The situation becomes even more of a challenge as many parks are expected to impose limits on the number of visitors and cut back on services—actions that seem certain to seriously impact the business of international tour operators and U.S.-based receptive tour operators who sell Visit USA product—especially national parks. Learn more about this issue at https://www.ustravel.org/issues/national-parks.
