Are Canadians in a travel rut, or what?
Study says we dream of Australia but flock to Florida and Caribbean
Some of the elements in this story appeared first this week in Travel Editor Jim Byers’ weekday blog, found at www.thestar.com/travel.
Avery cool study was released this week by the folks at Cheapflights.ca. The company surveyed more than 1,000 Canadians and found that more than 80 per cent of us are likely to return to the same place over and over again for a holiday. And eat the same dishes. At the same restaurants.
Forty four per cent of Canadians surveyed said they ate at the same restaurant on repeat visits, with 36 per cent visiting the same attractions. More than 32 per cent of us stay at the same hotel and almost 20 per cent eat the same meal over and over again.
The study found that, to no one’s surprise, the Caribbean is our favourite spot for repeat visits, with 12.7 per cent of the vote. Next was Florida at 10.3 per cent, then Western Europe (7.3), Las Vegas/Southwest U.S. (6.9), Hawaii (6.7), the Maritimes (6.0), Mexico (5.9), the UK (5.5), Banff/Calgary/The Rockies (5.0) and Toronto (4.5) for the top 10. Next were California, Van- couver, Montreal/Quebec, New York and Ottawa.
The two sexes agreed mostly on the Caribbean and Florida. But men liked Western Europe more than women (8.3 per cent for men, 6.7 for women). Las Vegas and the Southwest U.S. was named top spot by 9.2 per cent of men but just 5.2 per cent of women. For Toronto, women gave us a 5.4 per cent vote, compared to 3.2 per cent for men.
Asked where we’d go if we could travel to a new destination, a whopping 31 per cent said Australia and New Zealand. Next was Eastern Europe at 7.0, followed by Costa Rica, the South Pacific, Alaska and Belize.
WIKIVOYAGE OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES
After some legal wrangling with for-profit site Wikitravel, from whom much of their material has been taken, Wikimedia’s latest project, wikivoyage.org, launched on Jan. 15. It’s the closest thing to competition Trip Advisor has, and given the cultural power of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, its for-everybody-by-everybody approach to cities, countries, regions, hotels,
THE BEST OF IDEAS, THE WORST OF IDEAS
Cruiseline Royal Caribbean International have just announced they’ll be letting passengers bring up to two 750ml bottles of wine (not liquor) per cabin with them on embarkation from now on, reversing their previous policy of checking everyone at the door for booze
U.S. PILOTS TOLD TO SWITCH OFF
itineraries and phrasebooks could easily overtake it. like they were trench-coated 14year-olds at a dance.
Disney, Oceania, P&O, Regent Seven Seas, Crystal, Seabourn and Silversea already permit personal adult refreshments; some of them even permit liquor.
This announcement comes just a couple of weeks after their introduction of an all-you-can-drink deal for $55 a day. We wonder if they’re planning on raising the height of their guard rails, too, to prevent their increasingly tipsy passengers from tipping overboard.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is suggesting a ban on personal electronic devices in cockpits. Flight attendants have always forced us to stow ours, for reasons of possible interference with cockpit communications, but that’s not the reason the pilots would be shut down.
After several incidents, including one in 2009 when Northwest Airline pilots on their laptops flew almost 250 km past their destination, the FAA just doesn’t want them distracted.