Here in Canada we are counting down

to our annual Thanksgiving familial feasting;  the beautiful, warm early October weather encouraging us to grab one more outdoor meal on our dining porch in beautiful St. Marys, Ontario. Where are you traveling to this Canadian Thanksgiving? If you are training, plane-ing it or a back seat passenger, headed towards your annual family gathering, get caught up on all the followsummer travel news. Happy Thanksgiving all!

Google’s New Earbuds With Real-Time Translation Have Huge Implications for Travel

Travel technology tends to be focused on the transactional; ways to streamline and personalize the booking process for consumers, while reducing costs and connecting systems on the back-end. But, during a consumer technology keynote Wednesday, Google announced one feature that could help redefine the travel experience for consumers around the world. Google Pixel Buds may appear at first glance to be a less aesthetically pleasing version of Apple’s popular Airpods wireless headphones. But Google Pixel Buds house one feature that could prove transformative for the travel industry: real-time translation capabilities powered by Google Translate and Google Assistant, Google’s more useful equivalent of Apple’s Siri.

Read more HERE

WestJet adds two new routes to Mexico City,

with traffic to Mexico up over 50%. WestJet has added nonstop flights to Mexico City from not one major Canadian gateway, but two, starting next March on a year-round basis. Calgary service will begin on March 14 with four weekly flights, while Vancouver flights kick off one day later on March 15 with three-time weekly service. Effective April 29, both routes will move to daily service. The launch of these two new routes expands WestJet’s position as the Canadian airline with the most flights to Mexico.

Read More HERE 

AccorHotels Buys Into Orient Express to Remake an Iconic Brand

AccorHotels’ appetite for dealmaking has continued with the purchase of 50 percent of the company behind the iconic Orient Express brand. The hotel group is partnering with existing shareholder, French rail operator SNCF, to develop a range of hotels under Orient Express brand name. Details of the amount involved in the investment were not given. The historic train carriages synonymous with the brand will remain the property of SNCF but are likely to be utilized by some of the brands within the AccorHotels portfolio, including John Paul and Noctis. (The carriages used to be owned by AccorHotels subsidiary Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits but were sold to SNCF in 2011.)

Read more HERE

What Monarch Air’s Bankruptcy Means for European Aviation

Airlines don’t usually go bankrupt suddenly. Warning signs flash up often enough — be they internal or external — and when a collapse happens there are plenty of reasons. That was true of Alitalia, Air Berlin and the same applies to Monarch. Anyone shocked at the 50-year old company’s demise just hadn’t been paying close enough attention. None of this makes it any easier for the hundreds of thousands of passengers who have had their holidays curtailed or ruined, and also for the 1,858 employees who have lost their jobs. Just like the other European airlines that have bitten the dust this year, Monarch was the victim of both its own mistakes and broader industry-wide problems.

Read more HERE

Travel well this Canadian Thanksgiving!