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Destinations favoured by online bookers for summer 2010

Saturday 3, July 2010

The Internet offers wide-ranging options for accessing travel information quickly and comprehensively. Whether booking flights, train tickets, rental cars or hotels, every single travel requirement can be met at the click of the mouse.

For many web users, the age of booking a package holiday is gone, and they now prefer to design their own holidays for themselves. Especially when the weather at home is capricious, and the summer is taking its time to arrive, like it has this year, it is worthwhile casting an eye over the web to find a short break. But what destinations are people choosing when making their leisure travel plans?

This is the question recently occupying hotel.info - the free online hotel reservation service with more than 210,000 hotels around the world - as it investigated the booking patterns of its European customers. The website looked in particular at the destinations that hotel.info users were selecting for the summer months of July and August 2010, concentrating on bookings of at least five consecutive nights. The results are clear:

• The tourist centres of Rome and Barcelona dominate the market.
• Majorca too is high on the list of preferred destinations.
• Alongside the traditional (beach) destinations, customers are also attracted by more exotic locations.
• Perhaps it should not come as a surprise that Cape Town features in the list.

The top 20 destinations as preferred by hotel.info customers:

1. Rome (Italy)

2. Barcelona (Spain)

3. Budapest (Hungary)

4. Platja de Palma (Spain/Majorca)

5. Athens (Greece)

6. Istanbul (Turkey)

7. S'Arenal (Spain/Majorca)

8. Rimini (Italy)

9. Cape Town (South Africa)

10. Naples (Italy)

11. Bangkok (Thailand)

12. Marseilles (France)

13. Cannes (France)

14. Dubai (UAE)

15. Hanoi (Vietnam)

16. Alicante (Spain)

17. Buenos Aires (Argentina)

18. Juan-les-Pins (France/Cote d’Azur)

19. Bardolino (Italy/Lake Garda)

20. Peguera (Spain/Majorca)

The favourite city-break tourist destinations of Barcelona and Rome obviously hold attraction for longer than just a couple of days. hotel.info customers also like to spend more time in these two Mediterranean cities. With Platja de Palma, S'Arenal and Peguera, three resorts in the Balearic Islands also make it into the rankings. And despite Greece's government debt crisis and its associated negative press, Athens seems to be a well-loved destination. Other places that are attracting visitors from the old continent include Dubai, Hanoi and Buenos Aires. Europeans are also choosing to holiday in the port of Marseilles, Cannes and Juan-les-Pins in France. Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, the currently unstable political situation in Thailand is not enough to deter holiday-makers from travelling to Bangkok.

In Cape Town, a South African city has joined the ranking. However, it is doubtful that the weather, which at this time of year is fairly average, is the reason for a longer visit to the city that is home to millions of people. The football World Cup was certainly the main priority for many of those booking trips to the Cape.

(Source: TravelDailyNew.com)

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