Budget travellers flock to London

HostelBookers.com has announced today that 2007 searches for hostels are topped by the UK capital, London, while Amsterdam, New York, Paris and Barcelona take the remaining places in the top five.

The figures are based on 2,500,000 of the web site's searches over the past 2 months, and bookings show that almost three quarters (74%) of searches and bookings are for familiar destinations within Europe, North America, and Australasia. Of these, 55% of searches and bookings are for culturally renowned European cities, 10% for North American destinations, and 9% for Australia and New Zealand combined.

Within the top 100 searched for destinations, only Marrakech and Cairo appeared for North Africa, while Cape Town was the only southern part of the continent to feature - at No.99. No Middle East cities appeared in the top 100, which may be a reflection of current turbulence in the region: The highest-ranking Middle Eastern place was Tel Aviv, at 207th most searched for destination.

While searches and bookings for Africa seem low in comparison, the love affair with South-East Asia continues, taking 9% of all searches and bookings. Bangkok, again, looks as though it will be a haven for the adventure tourist community in 2007, ranking at 23, just behind the more sedate central European cities of Brussels, Vienna and Budapest.

South America will contribute to the top 100 destinations next year, with Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) both making the top 50. Santiago de Chile (Chile) will be the 3rd most popular South American city according to HostelBookers.com - with searches and bookings placing it as the 81st most popular destination overall.

Commenting on the trends HostelBookers.com Managing Director, David Smith, said: "This is clear indication that while there's still a very strong sense of adventure out there, most travellers on a budget will be playing it safe next year, with well known, familiar destinations. We're still looking at large bookings next year for the more exotic and unusual destinations, but there's certainly a trend towards what people know."

Find more destination-based information, and make your own search for one of over 2,000 destinations worldwide at Hostelbookers.com.