These are the last, sweet waning days of August,

and our final summer hurrah, long weekend is upon us.  What are you doing this long Labour Day weekend? We will be toasting the summer ‘goodbye’, enjoying family and friends and remembering our travel exploits from the last 4 months. In the meantime, have a look at all the latest travel news!

TravelPulse Canada

How Disney World’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Compares to Disneyland’s Version

The Force is finally getting stronger in the eastern half of the country. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the ambitious expansion that opened at Disneyland on May 31 of this year opens at Walt Disney World on August 29. Disneyland’s version has already shown that the 14-acre land delivers an unprecedented level of detail and immersion, but now that all eyes are on Florida, everyone wants to know how the two stack up.

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Skift

Former Silversea Cruises CEO Takes Over at Luxe Travel Giant Abercrombie & Kent

Abercrombie & Kent has a new CEO following a recent change in ownership. In February this year, Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio, the former owner of the Silversea cruise line, announced the purchase of an 85 percent stake in the luxury tour operator for an undisclosed figure.

Now Lefebvre has brought in Amerigo Perasso, who spent 14 years at Silversea serving as CEO between 2007 and 2010, to head up his newly acquired company.

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Google Maps Poised to Be an $11 Billion Business in 4 Years

With more than a billion users, it’s hard to think of Google Maps as a fledgling business, but it is, relatively speaking, in terms of its efforts to rake in big money.

That’s all about to change, according to a research note from Morgan Stanley analystBrian Nowack. Some of Google Maps’ advertising products are expected to come out of beta in the fourth quarter and into 2020, leading Alphabet to grow its maps revenue 64 percent to $4.86 billion in 2020, Nowack projected.

New travel products, as well as augmented reality features and promoted pins that show the location of a business within Google Maps “,  are likely to further increase Google Maps’ user utility and monetization potential,” according to the research note.

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