A local travel agent says winter travel plans by people here in southeastern Manitoba have changed this year because of the nasty hurricane season in the Caribbean last year. Mary Jane Hiebert of Canada One Travel says the heavy damage at many vacation locations has changed how people are approaching a winter getaway.

"Warm is important, where is not as important, so there's not one place this winter that people are going to. Given the effects of the hurricanes in fall, that has had a huge impact on our industry."

Hiebert says a number of popular destinations like St. Kitts and St. Barts had massive damage and are not open for business. She adds Cuba is also still recovering and is not fully back to normal.

"What that has meant is there is more interest in places like Costa Rica and Belize, places that are a little harder to get to from here. So people are maybe going for two weeks because they have to overnight in Toronto or those kinds of things. So there's interest in different places."

Hiebert says the storm damage means there are fewer sun destinations available this winter and that means there are not the big last-minute selloffs that usually show up at this point in the season for those who are looking for an inexpensive vacation.