UK gains popularity with European travellers
According to the tHDT (trivago Hotel Destination Trends), a new study conducted by the hotel price comparison website trivago.co.uk on tourist travel trends in Europe, the UK is more popular among other European travellers this summer than in past years.
An analysis of summer travel trends in 2010 and 2011 shows that many more travellers are considering the UK as a holiday destination this year. In 2010, the United Kingdom was only the 15th most popular summer destination in France. Now, the UK has achieved 5th place, beating out Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Egypt and Turkey. A similar trend was reflected in other major European countries; the United Kingdom ranked 7th among Spanish travellers, 8th in Italy, and 9th in Germany. In all three cases, however, the UK has achieved better results.
When considering the preferences of Europe as a whole, the UK places 5th, behind France (4th place), Italy (3rd place), Germany (2nd place) and Spain (1st place). Last year, the United Kingdom was listed in eighth place, behind Greece (7th place), USA (6th place) and Turkey (5th place). Spain, Italy, Germany and France maintained both their popularity and ranking in both 2010 and 2011.
British travel tendencies
This summer, 27.1% of British travellers are looking at destinations inside the country. The next most popular country is Spain, with British travellers favouring Barcelona, Majorca, Salou, Benalmaden and Palma de Majorca. Other top destinations consist of the United States, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Egypt and Portugal.
In this, the British differ starkly from their European neighbours; 67% of Spanish, 58% of Italians, 41% of Germans and 37% of French visited cities in their own countries. Italians, Germans and French almost preferred Spain as their second most popular destination, followed by Italy or France.
Local preferences
Of the 27.1% of British people travelling inside the country, fifteen percent are heading to the capital this summer. The next most popular British city is Manchester (4.38%), followed by Blackpool (3.9%), Edinburgh (3.55%), York (3.25%), Brighton (3%), Liverpool (2.92%) and Glasgow (2.89%). In comparison, fully twenty percent of British travellers visited London in the summer of 2010, followed by Manchester, Blackpool, Glasgow and Sheffield.
The tHDT is a study which shows the travel tendencies of European tourists based on their hotel search requests for all destinations. Over 165,000 daily search requests are registered each day from trivago’s 10 million unique monthly visitors. The tHDT takes all 24 of its international language platforms into account, and provides data on local, regional, and Europe-wide travel preferences.