News to Use

New in Jasper

* PURSUIT is developing a new wildernessinspired hotel within Jasper National Park. Expected to open in June 2022, the hotel’s 88 guest rooms will feature kitchenettes and patios ‘that seamlessly bring the outdoors in’ pursuitcollection.com

New in Quebec

* IMPROVEMENTS at the base of the Montmorency Falls, close to Québec City, offer more ways to enjoy the waterfalls. A concrete path on the eastern side of the pool has been widened, while a new boardwalk allows visitors to cast a line or dip their feet in the water. quebec-cite.com

New in Vancouver

* GREATER Vancouver’s first new luxury boutique hotel in years, and the first hotel of its kind in the city of Richmond, opened this summer. The 100-room Versante is 20 minutes from Downtown Vancouver, and minutes from Vancouver International Airport. versantehotel.com

New hotel: Métis Crossing First Class support

A NEW 40-room boutique lodge is due to open by the end of November 2021 at Indigenous visitor attraction Métis Crossing.

Located in Smoky Lake, Alberta around 1.5 hours from Edmonton, it offers visitors an immersive hands-on cultural experience year-round to learn about Métis culture and history.

Designed by Métis architect Tiffany Shaw-Collinge, each room in the hotel as been curated by a Métis artist and features traditional art and storytelling. The beds each have a hand sewn quilt made by women from the New Dawn Métis Women’s Society, which guests can purchase at the end of their stay.

Also new is the Visions, Hopes and Dreams at Métis Crossing Wildlife Park featuring the return of woods bison, plains bison, white bison, elk, white elk, and percheron horses to traditional Métis lands.

Visitors can sign up for tours through the wildlife park that explain the historical significance of the animals in Métis culture. There are also evening ‘under the stars’ Indigenous storytelling. metiscrossing.com

Reconnect at Niagara Falls

FIRST Class Holidays’ biggestever Canada campaign, which it is running with Destination Canada until March 22, offers agents a range of support material and the chance to win a trip to Canada.

The six-month-long Love Canada initiative includes trade-marketing materials such as posters and videos as well as a booking incentive to win a trip to Canada.

“We will have so much content for agents to use and interact with,” said Managing Director, Dan Gathercole.

“We saw a surge of late bookings in October, with conversion double that of 2019 and average spend 20% up, which is very encouraging,” added Gathercole.

“We are getting lots of Motorhome requests and selfdrives, but the ever-popular rail and cruise packages continue to sell really well. We are also doing a lot more VFR for October.

“People tend to be looking at doing more family trips than they were before and staying for slightly longer and spending more money.

“We believe that Canada will do extremely well in 2022 given its vast landscape and the type of holidays most people take,” he added. fcholidays.com

A NEW tour telling the ‘untold’ Indigenous story at Niagara Falls will launch in spring 2022.

Niagara Living Museum Tours will feature animated encounters and engagements with Indigenous peoples, cultural interpreters, historians, food specialists, and artisans.

The tour will reveal the intrinsic connection between the famous waterfalls and the livelihood and traditions of the Haudenosaunee. It will also ‘shine a light on what’s not in history books’, such as the role of Indigenous people in the War of 1812, when 300 Mohawk fought with the British at the Battle of Beaver Dams, defeating 500 Americans. ”Guests will never think of Niagara Falls the same way after the tour,” said a spokesperson. niagarafallstourism.com

Riviera’s Rockies and Vancouver tour

RIVIERA Travel’s Canada group tour holiday for 2023 will highlight the best of the Rocky Mountains. The nine-day option, titled ‘Canada’s Rocky Mountaineer’, includes two days on the Rocky Mountaineer train; trips to Lake Louise, Peyto Lake and the Athabasca Glacier; a ride on the Snocoach snow track; and a journey to Icefields Parkway to walk on the 300-metre-thick Athabasca glacier. Banff and Vancouver are also included.

Twenty-one departures are available between May to September, with a lead-in price of £2999pp, including return flights, transfers and excursions.

Will Sarson, Head of Strategy and Innovation at Riviera Travel, said: “The magnificent Rocky Mountains are a spectacular sight like no other. And Vancouver is one of the world’s most stunning panoramas.”

Alaska add-ons to the tour are available. rivieratravel.co.uk

Cape Breton trip to the top in 2022

THE new Ingonish Tree Walk, in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, is scheduled to start welcoming visitors in 2022 . Blending in with the landscape it will offer ‘education, entertainment and adventure’.

Access will be by trail or a new eight-person gondola – the first in Atlantic Canada – which will take riders from the bottom of Cape Smokey 320 vertical meters to the top in four minutes. Visitors will be able to explore Cape Breton nature, learn about the history of the Mi’kmaq people, and enjoy views of the Atlantic Ocean and Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

The project was due to open n June 2021 but was delayed by the pandemic. atlanticcanadaholiday.co.uk