Winter Is Coming: Nino Montagnese on ACV’s Cuba pivot, luxury push, sargassum & Revnet

On Aug 28, 2026

Winter Is Coming is an annual PAX series that takes readers inside the war rooms of Canada’s leading travel companies as the all-important winter booking season gets underway. In the weeks ahead, watch for exclusive interviews with industry leaders as PAX unpacks what’s new and next this season.

With Cuba’s tourism challenges removing a major source of affordable sun capacity from the Canadian market, Air Canada Vacations (ACV) is heading into winter 2026-27 with a strategy built around alternatives, choice and a broader definition of what a winter escape can look like.

The tour operator is adding more three-and-a-half-star resorts to capture budget-conscious customers who once travelled to Cuba, while putting greater emphasis on the Dominican Republic, Mexico and even the United States.

At the same time, ACV is confronting other shifts in the marketplace – from sargassum in Mexico’s Quintana Roo to rising fuel costs – while sharpening its luxury offering and preparing new tools for travel advisors as Softvoyage phases out its legacy Revnet booking platform.

It all adds up to a winter season where adaptability will be key.

“This year, more than ever, we have to guide the customer to destinations that we know are going to suit them,” Nino Montagnese, vice-president of Air Canada Vacations, told PAX via video link earlier this month.

“There’s a big chunk of product that’s missing, so we have to pivot.”

The strategy comes as ACV promotes its 2026-27 Digital Sun Guide, which features more than 600 vacation options from its Dream of Sun collection, spanning traditional sun packages, cruises, European beach destinations and vacations around the world.

Its “How Does a Vacation Sound?” campaign is also in market until Sept. 7, while ACV’s highly-anticipated Dream Makers product launch tour rolls across Canada in September, giving the sales team an opportunity to connect with travel advisors and unveil new destinations, products and tools.

The Cuba effect

Montagnese is optimistic about the months ahead, but Cuba has created a wrinkle.

“It’s shaping up to be a good winter, but there’s a little distraction because of Cuba. Let’s face it,” he said.

Like many operators, Air Canada, inclusive of Air Canada Vacations, has postponed its resumption of service to Cuba until further notice amid ongoing uncertainty in the island destination, which continues to grapple with fuel shortages, supply issues, hotelier exits and U.S. sanctions.

To be clear, ACV has never been Canada’s largest tour operator into Cuba, but the island’s struggles have nevertheless sent ripples across the market.

“It affects all of us,” Montagnese said.

One issue is aircraft capacity. Planes that would otherwise fly to Cuba have to go somewhere, potentially putting more seats into destinations that may not be able to absorb them.

Another issue? Finding vacations at prices that make sense for travellers accustomed to Cuba’s value proposition.

“We’ve had to look for products that fit into that Cuba category. That budget-minded traveller,” Montagnese said.

Cuba customers generally understood what they were purchasing, he explained, and their expectations reflected the price.

But moving those travellers into destinations where standards (and prices) may be higher isn’t necessarily straightforward.

ACV has responded, in part, by adding more capacity into the Dominican Republic.

It is also broadening its hotel mix. While much of ACV’s portfolio sits in the four- and five-star range, three-and-a-half-star properties are being introduced to provide affordable options.

At ACV, resorts that are being positioned as “Cuba alternatives” include El Cid Castilla Beach Hotel in Mazatlán, Mexico, along with Casa Marina Sousa and Playabacheta Hotel in Puerto Plata and Bahia Principe Escape in Samaná, Dominican Republic.

Cuba’s absence is also reshaping some of ACV’s signature events.

The company’s annual LGBTQ+ “Chill Out” trip, for example, has moved out of Cuba. The 2027 edition will now take place at Sandos in Cancun beginning April 3, for a week.

Who else is benefitting? The United States

But one of the more surprising beneficiaries of Cuba’s troubles, Montagnese said, is the United States.

ACV is seeing some former Cuba customers choose Florida – including Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami – as well as California, albeit sometimes for shorter trips.

“Even with the exchange rate and capacity being down, U.S. bookings are up,” Montagnese said. “These are people looking for alternatives.”

“A huge destination isn’t available anymore. People are now looking for a place to take a vacation that isn’t going to cost them a fortune.”

Of course, U.S. destinations don’t always fall into the cheap and cheerful category.

“Las Vegas is still very expensive once you get there,” Montagnese said.

But a wave of at-par deals – particularly in Vegas – appears to be giving some Canadians an added incentive to return to the U.S.

At the same time, consumer sentiment remains fluid, shifting almost week by week amid ongoing geopolitical tensions and the cross-border tariff dispute.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent decision to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America” could prompt some Canadians to reconsider their U.S. travel plans, much as previous political flare-ups have done.

(For context, PAX’s conversation with Montagnese took place before the Lake Ontario renaming controversy unfolded).

The takeaway, in Montagnese’s view (and at the time of our conversation) is that Canadians no longer want to limit themselves when it comes to their hard-earned vacations.

“The length of those U.S. trips may change,” he said. “Someone who once spent 10 days or two weeks in Cuba, for example, might spend one week in the U.S.”

Sun doesn’t have to mean the Caribbean

The Cuba shakeup coincides with another trend ACV has been pursuing: Canadians looking beyond familiar resort destinations.

The company’s winter network this season includes new offerings such as Mazatlán, Mérida and Puerto Escondido in Mexico, alongside Roatán, Guatemala and Tenerife.

“Customers continue to look for something different,” Montagnese said.

He recalled recently meeting an older traveller, at his gym, who had grown tired of repeatedly visiting Punta Cana and wanted a change.

That desire creates an opportunity to sell places like Palma de Mallorca and Tenerife in Spain, where travellers can combine beaches and warm weather with culture and exploration.

There is also Mérida, in the heart of Mexico’s Yucatán, which Montagnese highlighted as one of the country’s safest cities.

In other words, ACV’s definition of a sun vacation is becoming increasingly global.

“Yes, some people want sun, but they’re also going to Europe,” he said. “For us, the strategy is to offer choice, at all price points.”

Sargassum: sell beyond the beach

Choice is central to how Montagnese believes the industry should approach another recurring challenge: sargassum.

The brown macroalgae has been particularly visible in Cancun and other parts of Quintana Roo, but Montagnese stressed that it isn’t confined to Mexico, stretching to places like Florida as well.

“We hope that by the winter season, a lot of it is gone,” he said.

Sargassum is typically seasonal from May to August, but Montagnese recalled encountering it in Tulum last December.

“The reality is that sargassum is here and destinations are doing what they can to clear it up because they know winter is coming. But there’s also so many other options,” Montagnese said.

That’s where travel advisors can change the conversation.

Even in Cancun and Tulum, Montagnese said, travellers can visit cenotes and lagoons instead of treating the beach as the destination’s only attraction.

“We, as tourism partners, are not doing a good enough job of showing what else there is for the customer to enjoy,” he said.

“There are hundreds of cenotes inland to spend the day at,” he noted, pointing to spas and beach-club-style experiences being developed around them.

Despite the headlines, sargassum hasn’t dented ACV’s Mexico business.

“Cancun continues to be our number one,” Montagnese said.

Luxury moves front & centre

At the opposite end of the pricing spectrum, ACV is preparing to put much more muscle behind luxury.

The tour operator recently became The Excellence Collection’s exclusive Canadian tour operator partner – a relationship Montagnese views as part of a larger effort to better showcase premium product.

“We have a high-end customer base,” he said, pointing to ACV’s long-standing strength with Sandals and Beaches Resorts.

What ACV hasn’t done well enough, he acknowledged, is make its wider luxury portfolio easy to discover.

The issue is partly how travel websites traditionally display inventory, he said.

When results are filtered from lowest to highest price, a customer with $5,000 per person to spend may have to sift through pages of properties before finding the resorts relevant to them.

“Our strategy, going forward, is to carve out luxury and feature it,” he said.

This will be a talking point at ACV’s upcoming Dream Makers roadshow.

“We’re going to give our partners the opportunity to see luxury products up front, versus digging for it,” he said.

The Excellence partnership is an important step. ACV currently has access to the brand’s Dominican Republic properties and expects to add a new Riviera Maya resort opening in February.

Jamaica, Costa Mujeres and Playa Mujeres aren’t yet included.

“But we’re working on it,” Montagnese said. “Baby steps.”

Fuel surcharge staying. For now

Early winter sales, meanwhile, are looking positive despite economic pressures.

Advanced bookings are “good,” Montagnese shared.

But the rise in jet fuel prices, brought on by conflict in the Middle East, remains, causing prices to rise.

“There’s been a lot of negatives against people who want to purchase travel,” said Montagnese.

Still, the bookings are coming in, and Montagnese expects ACV’s Dream Makers tour to stimulate another wave of demand.

Until then, ACV is closely watching fuel costs. Montagnese hopes prices will level off, but said the company hasn’t yet seen a meaningful reduction yet.

That means ACV’s $50 fuel surcharge will remain for the time being, he said.

“With rising fuel costs, the average price went up between $80 and $100 per person for us,” Montagnese said. “We made a conscious decision to go in with $50 because we didn’t want the prices to go up as much as they did.”

He would like to see the surcharge disappear, but can’t say when.

“I would love to say it’s going to be gone tomorrow, but until prices drop, I can’t promise anything.”

Reports earlier this year about potential jet fuel shortages have not developed into an operational concern at Air Canada Vacations, he added.

“Air Canada has a lot of jet fuel,” Montagnese said, adding that the airline has secured fuel in Europe as well.

For ACV, the bigger priority is ensuring its portfolio serves multiple budgets.

“I need to have product for the budget-minded customer, the middle, and the high end, and we need to feature it properly,” he said.

A Revnet solution for advisors

ACV is also preparing for a significant change on the travel advisor side as Softvoyage decommissions Revnet (an action that, as previously reported, has been delayed beyond the original Sept. 1 deadline).

The legacy blue-screen system remains popular because it offers functionality advisors can’t always access through current distribution channels, including certain connector bookings and more complicated reservations.

For ACV, connectors are the biggest concern.

“We have all of these connector cities that we haven’t been able to get into the distribution channels, but Revnet has them,” Montagnese said.

As PAX first reported, ACV is working to incorporate more connectors into GDS channels. But it is also developing a workaround.

Currently, advisors can email connectors@vacv.com and ask ACV to add a connection to a file.

But soon, they will have another option: a dedicated phone line.

“We won’t put the onus on advisors to email and wait,” Montagnese said. “We’ll open up a customer service line – or res line – that is specifically for connectors, because adding a connector is quick.”

The new hotline will be formally announced at ACV’s fall product launch.

In the meantime, ACV has been working to identify the functionality of Revnet and how advisors use it.

“It is legacy, but we all need to evolve to new tools,” he said. “I think it’s now up to the trade to find ways to get the functionality that they had elsewhere, and it’s up to us tour operators to provide it someway or somehow.”

ACV bookings involving multiple hotels, for example, will have to be called in. But Montagnese doesn’t see that as ACV’s biggest pain point.

“The bulk of the challenges, at ACV, are around the connectors,” he said.

New B2B portal, self-serve tools coming

Revnet isn’t the only technology update advisors can expect this winter.

ACV plans to announce a new B2B portal, although Montagnese said it may arrive shortly after Dream Makers rather than being ready for the launch itself.

The company is also working on self-serve tools for groups and regular bookings.

“We have a lot of plans,” he said. “Let’s put it this way – our company is beginning to follow the entire Air Canada network, and we’re going to be following it properly. We’re evolving with the way the customer wants to purchase.”

One example is ACV’s expansion of flight-and-hotel bookings.

Traditional packages combine flights, hotels and transfers. But ACV is seeing increasing demand for a simpler flight-and-hotel option, with travellers deciding whether they want transfers.

The model is being rolled out across almost all destinations and was developed largely with travel advisors in mind, Montagnese said.

Destinations including Liberia, Grenada and Saint Lucia now offer both options, he said.

The flexibility also reflects how some travellers – particularly luxury clients – actually travel once they arrive.

“I see many customers who are on our flight walk right past the airport reps and grab a taxi, or a private transfer, because they don’t want to get on the bus,” Montagnese said.

ACV, too, offers private transfers across its destinations for customers who prefer the traditional package structure but want to upgrade their arrival experience.

“Qualify the customer’s needs”

For travel advisors, Montagnese’s overriding message for winter is to avoid making assumptions.

ACV’s product range extends far beyond traditional Caribbean and Mexican packages into European sun destinations, tours, Asia, South America and the South Pacific.

The opportunity, he said, lies in determining what a client actually wants – and then being prepared to redirect them when their first choice isn’t available or suitable.

“It goes back to qualifying the customer’s needs,” Montagnese said. “Don’t always anticipate that they just want to lie on a beach.”

And then there’s Montagnese’s annual advice to the trade: don’t overlook the upsell.

“I say this every year,” he said. “Customers are upgrading to premium economy and business class. Do that at the time of booking so you earn commission.”

The bottom line? Winter is coming and ACV is widening its scope.

“It’s up to us, as an industry, to qualify the customer’s needs and identify what they actually want,” said Montagnese.

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