Naomi Lai
Naomi Lai focuses on travel stories that zoom in on specific places and experiences, blending practical trip planning detail with a clear sense of why a destination matters right now. She writes for Islands, where she covers destinations, attractions, and developments that affect how and where people travel, with a particular eye on Canada and other easily reachable getaways.
Destination guides with concrete, on‑the‑ground detail
At Islands, Lai writes tightly scoped destination pieces that walk readers through what to do, what to expect, and how to make a trip work on the ground. In her coverage of Whycocomagh Provincial Park on Cape Breton Island, she describes it as a crowd‑free park with views over Bras d'Or Lake, noting its seasonal opening window, the mix of serviced and unserviced campsites, and amenities such as showers, a playground, shared outdoor kitchen, laundry, and dump station. She highlights that camping fees come in under a specific nightly price point and explains the different booking channels for regular sites versus the park’s three high‑demand yurts. Her feature on the town between Toronto and Barrie frames it as a charming retirement community built around outdoor recreation, local shops, and access to strong healthcare, positioning the town both as a place to live and as a visit‑worthy stop for travelers with those priorities.
Lai also profiles urban attractions with the same practical focus. In her piece on Allan Gardens Conservatory in Toronto, she presents it as a free, year‑round oasis a short walk from a major downtown shopping mall, and breaks down the five distinct greenhouse environments so readers know what they will find in each. She includes operating hours, how to reach the conservatory by public transit, and a realistic time budget for a visit, balancing inspiration with the specifics needed to slot it into a city itinerary. Across these articles, she consistently orients the reader with clear place‑setting and then moves quickly into logistics, pricing, seasonality, and access.
Covering travel infrastructure and airline decisions
Alongside destination pieces, Lai tracks changes in the air network that shape how travelers move. Her reporting on Air Canada’s suspension of several routes explains which specific flights are being pulled, including high‑profile routes between Toronto or Montreal and New York’s JFK, as well as links between Salt Lake City and Toronto and domestic routes such as Fort McMurray–Vancouver and Yellowknife–Toronto. She connects those decisions directly to the carrier’s fuel bill, summarizing the airline’s statement that jet fuel prices have doubled since the start of the Iran conflict and noting that Air Canada spent more than $5 billion on fuel in 2024. The piece also spells out the practical implications for travelers: expectations of higher ticket prices, reduced frequencies, and fewer route options over the summer travel period, while flagging that affected passengers will be offered alternate options and should watch their inboxes.
This side of her work sits at the intersection of travel and business, translating airline cost pressures and route profitability decisions into clear consequences for consumers. She focuses on the routes and seasons most relevant to cross‑border and domestic leisure travel, keeping the emphasis on what changes will feel like for people planning trips rather than on corporate strategy for its own sake.
Travel editing and long‑running personal travel writing
Beyond Islands, Lai works as a news editor at Explore, where she combines travel coverage with close attention to language and story structure. She has been chronicling her trips on a personal travel blog since 2012 and has visited 43 countries, experience that underpins her approach to destination writing and to assessing what information travelers actually need on the page. She moved into full‑time freelance writing in 2019 and has since built a portfolio across travel outlets, including Islands and Explore, that centers on clear, service‑oriented stories grounded in her own time on the road.
4 more business journalists.
Aarjavee Raaj
Aarjavee Raaj focuses on how corporate decisions, government warnings and economic trends affect everyday Canadians, using clear, data-driven business and related news coverage. She is a CTVNews.ca journalist with experience reporting on arts, culture, business and more, and her name is pronounced Aar-Za-Vee. Her work links institutional and corporate developments to practical consequences for workers, consumers and families, including corporate losses, retail restructuring, tax schemes and compliance warnings. She reports on workplace trends, economic strain, consumer recalls and health impacts, using survey data, charity reports, regulatory notices and clinical stories to show how macroeconomic and policy issues touch daily life. A digital journalist, she keeps to tight headlines, clear summaries of official statements or data, and a steady focus on what developments mean for people who work, shop and rely on public services.
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams reports human interest stories that follow how sudden conflict, loss and long-running mysteries reshape the lives of ordinary people in everyday settings. She is a writer-reporter on PEOPLE’s Human Interest team, a role she has held since joining the brand in June 2021. Her work centers on routine days that turn into major events, giving equal weight to what happened and the human cost. She covers minor disputes and errands that end in tragedy, sudden accidents, law enforcement and public safety incidents, and missing-person cases with new developments after years of uncertainty. Her reporting is concise, event-led and built around individual lives, often framed with clear emotional cues while staying grounded in verified facts. Business and workplace contexts appear as backdrops, but the person and their circle remain at the heart of the story.
Akshay Kulkarni
Akshay Kulkarni is a data-led reporter who explains how economic, policy and social forces play out in British Columbia through concrete numbers, records and local case histories. He has worked as a journalist at CBC British Columbia since 2021, focusing on business, labour and resource developments, including tariffs, trade rules, corporate strategies and regulatory decisions. His coverage of critical minerals, Amazon’s impact on jobs and wages, and responsible investment links market shifts to the lived experience of workers, consumers and small businesses. He also reports on infrastructure, energy and land use, such as the Site C project and high-value property disputes, and on policy and social systems, including Indigenous deaths in custody, social media use in harm reduction, and mandatory inquests. His stories are built around original interviews and quantitative detail that show how systems affect communities on the ground.
Allison Stephen
Allison Stephen stands out for connecting everyday life with money, work, and the built environment through vivid local examples instead of abstract business coverage. She is a staff writer at Daily Hive, where she covers how jobs, housing, major projects, and consumer experiences shape economic reality on the ground. Housing and real estate are central to her work, including detailed, accessible stories on distinctive homes, high-end rentals, and monthly shifts in home prices and cost of living. She regularly covers employment, especially public-sector and institutional hiring, highlighting well-paid roles and urging readers to act on new opportunities. Her reporting on major civic and recreational projects explains what is being built, how much it costs, and where it stands in approvals. She also writes about local businesses, food, and attractions, using concrete numbers, specific locations, and direct calls to action.