Buskers help sell summer holidays

The Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations’ has come top (19.1%) of a national poll of songs most likely to get us into the holiday spirit and now one tour operator is paying buskers to play the top five tunes in British cities as it launches its summer holiday programme.

To launch its holiday programme for summer ‘09, Jet2holidays.com, which operates from six airports in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, has sponsored buskers to ditch their usual playlist and sing the top holiday tunes instead as a subtle way of encouraging the public to think about booking their summer holidays.

More than 1,000 people across the UK were asked to name the song that most put them in the holiday spirit – Cliff Richard’s ‘Summer Holiday’ (15.1%) was second, ‘Club Tropicana’ (11.4%) by Wham! third, followed by Ricky Martin’s ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ (10.9%) and ‘Summer Nights’ (9.4%) by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

Shoppers in Newcastle, Manchester and Leeds are first on the list of cities being targeted by the Jet2holidays.com-sponsored buskers.

Richard Bodin, MD of Jet2holidays.com, said: “The weather has been pretty bad so far this winter and there’s a lot of general doom and gloom around, so we wanted to do something a bit different to get the public back into the holiday spirit.

“To kick off our summer holiday campaign, which has seven-night breaks from £99 per person, we’ve been on the streets serenading the public with the nation’s favourite holiday tunes and strumming up a bit of trade.”

The research also revealed:

- Our holiday song keeps the memory of a holiday alive for more than six months according to 49% of those polled
- 40% thought their holiday song would encourage them to revisit the same vacation destination again

Top Ten Tunes to get us into the holiday spirit:

‘Good Vibrations’ by The Beach Boys
‘Summer Holiday’ by Cliff Richard
‘Club Tropicana’ by Wham!
‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ by Ricky Martin
‘Summer Nights’ by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John
‘Holiday’ by Madonna
‘Hotel California’ by The Eagles
‘Macarena’ by Los del Rio
‘Loco in Acapulco’ by the Four Tops
‘We’re Going To Ibiza’ by Vengaboys

For bookings visit Jet2holidays.com.