With sunny skies hanging over Metro Vancouver, you may be thinking about summer travel plans and one expert says if you want to get a good deal, you should book your ticket right now.
“I think a lot of people saw what happened last year with Europe being incredibly busy in the summer months and we’ve noticed a pick-up of that happening earlier this year, in terms of booking activity,” explained Chadd Andre, executive vice-president and general manager of Flight Centre in Canada.
While acknowledging travel is really expensive, he explains people are looking at tour packages as a way to cut down on costs. He adds that if you want to save as much money as possible, it helps to be flexible with your dates.
“And booking early. If you’re locked into certain dates, your chances of getting the best value for money are definitely more compromised. It doesn’t mean it’s impossible, but the odds are stacked against you if you don’t have a little bit of flexibility,” he told CityNews.
Being flexible also means you may have to skip out on travelling during July and August.
“We certainly see prices to be quite a bit higher, not only on airfares but on accommodation as well. So, if you’re able to push the boundaries of what your summer season looks like, you can definitely achieve some cost-savings there, in general.”
As for hotspots, he says London, Paris, and Rome are at the top of the list.
“Portugal has definitely been continuing to trend higher and higher on the list for the last several years and this year is no exception. And outside of Europe, we’re definitely seeing Japan back on the list for demand as well.
“A lot of people are interested in heading across the Pacific [Ocean], instead of across the Atlantic [Ocean],” explained Andre, adding Vietnam and Bali are also on the list.
If you’re thinking of travelling to Paris, it will be much busier and likely more expensive this summer as the city hosts the Summer Olympics Games.
“Everything is based on availability. So, where there’s higher demand, those hoteliers and airlines are going to charge as much as they can get away with. When there’s higher demand, they tend to charge a lot more than they otherwise would in any other year.”
He says people are also hyper-aware of climate change and record-high temperatures when booking a trip.
“Even this year already, there have been heatwaves across Europe, so those peak summer months are becoming hotter and hotter and that can be very uncomfortable, and we are seeing people choose May, September, April, or October … to avoid those extreme periods of heat.”
Andre points out that warm destinations like Mexico and Hawaii remain popular for British Columbians.
Meanwhile, passport applications are way up so far this year, with more than half a million people applying for one in both January and February and just over 480,000 people in March.
“The average wait time for callers to the Passport Call Centre can also vary and some clients may experience either longer or shorter hold times, depending on whether they are calling during peak periods, which are typically on Mondays and Tuesdays,” said Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in a statement to CityNews.
“The first 10-year passports were issued in 2013 and with those 10-year renewals starting this year, we are seeing an over 100% increase in applications over the same time period as last year with no delays delivering passports,” it added.
The IRCC says in the 2024-25 fiscal year, it’s predicting Service Canada will receive between 400,000 and 700,000 more applications than what it forecasted in 2023-24.
The current average wait time for a passport is about 20 days, but you have the option to get it processed at an express rate of 10 days.
-With files from Greg Bowman