Emerald Waterways Adds Yacht Cruising, Plus WestJet, Transat and More Travel News

Emerald Waterways has announced it will be adding intimate yacht cruising to its growing portfolio of river cruises when the 100-guest super yacht, the Emerald Azzurra. launches in July 2021. Emerald Azzurra will be the first vessel launched under the new Emerald Yacht Cruises brand, part of the newly formed Emerald Cruises portfolio. 2021-2022 itineraries in the Adriatic, Mediterranean, and Red Seas are available for booking now. Early bird pricing is available.

The 360-foot long Emerald Azzurra has been custom-designed to cruise the waters of the Adriatic Coast, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, offering guests an intimate, boutique yachting experience.

The yacht will call on multiple ports in Greece, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, France, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Spain, Israel, Jordan and Egypt.

Air Transat, named the World's Best Leisure Airline in 2019, now ranks eighth on Forbes magazine's annual list of Canada's Best Employers, up by an impressive 43 positions compared with last year. In Quebec, meanwhile, the company jumped 10 spots into third.

"It's a huge honour to be in the select club of Canada's top 10 employers, and to reach the top three in Quebec," said Christophe Hennebelle, Vice-President, Human Resources and Corporate Affairs, Transat. "We offer a stimulating, diversified work environment where teamwork, recognition and personnel development are highly valued. Thanks to these assets, which are aligned with the company's engagement values, we have built a robust employer brand that our people take pride in, and that has brought us to this level. Every day, our 5,000 employees embody the joy of vacations and contribute to the company's success. We thank them for their dedication and commitment to our customers."

Forbes establishes its ranking of the country's top employers based on a survey of 8,000 Canadians who work for private and public companies with more than 500 employees. Answers are given anonymously

WestJet has been named by Forbes as one Canada's Best Employers. This is WestJet's fifth time in as many years.

"WestJet is a place where people build careers, life-long friendships and amazing experiences," said Mark Porter, WestJet Executive Vice-President, People and Culture. "Ranking among Canada's best employers is a testament of our continued commitment to making WestJet a great place to work. I thank all 14,000 WestJetters for their many contributions to our great culture and growing network."

Canada's Best Employers are chosen based on an independent survey conducted by Statista of more than 8,000 Canadians working for companies with more than 500 employees. Employees were asked how likely they'd recommend their employer to others and to recommend other employers, both factored into the rankings.

TravelPulse Canada was at the recently held New York Times Travel Show and had a chance to sit down with John Downey, President of the Americas for Hurtigruten.

"Americans and Canadians want all inclusive-products, so we're very popular," he said. "We visit 34 ports in all, and you can see all the best parts of Norway with us, including fjords and a coastline like people have never seen."

They also do small ships in the Caribbean and sail to central and South America, as well as expedition trips to Antarctica, New England and the Canadian Maritimes, and the fabled Northwest Passage.

"You can do Patagonia and add Antarctica for an unforgettable trip," Downey explained. "We also take people to Nome and other unusual spots on our Alaska voyages, and you can visit Norwegian islands inside the Arctic Circle where you'll find the largest population of polar bears in the world."

Downey said Hurtigruten works k closely with agents and offers commissions. They also recently launched a new travel advisor portal, with almost 1,000 agents signing up in the first two weeks.

The Nevis Tourism Authority, (NTA) has a new CEO.

Ms. Jadine Yarde has been selected as the new head of the NTA. She is an American born, and has Barbadian and Grenadian citizenship. Ms. Yarde has lived in the major U.S. cities of Boston and New York for the majority of her life, before moving to Barbados and working in tourism, marketing and entertainment and later as a consultant in both Barbados and Grenada.

Yarde has worked with the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc and has been involved in the development of Limitless Concierge Service, which is a Barbadian and Grenadian based concierge service. This has allowed her to immerse in the Caribbean lifestyle while understanding the traditional tourist and their needs and wants. With more than 10 years of experience in marketing, tourism and entertainment.

Yarde, who holds a BSc in Marketing, brings to the table a creative vision for the future of Nevis' tourism industry, an analytic tourism outlook, a strong digital marketing mindset and clear understanding of how important a business' digital footprint is.

She assumed office on February 1.

TravelPulse Canada was in New York City in late January for the New York Times Travel show, where we caught up with Brooke Fallek of Black Tomato.

For agents who don't know it, Black Tomato is a company that offers bespoke experiences around the world. They started in the UK in 2005 but they also have an office in New York City and are part of Virtuoso, Fallek said.

"Our definition of luxury is what makes us stand out," she said in a chat with yours truly. "Our take is that luxury isn't always expensive, five-star travel. Luxury to us is doing what you want and feeding your passion with the most authentic experiences imaginable; experiences that tap into your passions in a certain destination.

"It's all bespoke. You can search the types of experiences you want and then talk to one of our experts for an hour or whatever you like. Maybe your wife or husband loves sports, or you want to do a trip based on what your kids love to study in school. No problem.

"It's not a plug and play type of thing. If you've never been to the Tower of London we can set it up so maybe you go with the royal jeweler. We have experts in almost every destination. Maybe you want to rent a cool car. If you have family issues maybe you want to go to a place where you can work on those. Maybe you go to Mongolia to learn about nomadic life and how they survive with what looks like very little in the way of material goods."

"It's about what you want to feel more than where do you want to go,"Fallek said.