HITWISE UK ONLINE TRAVEL UPDATE

Disneyland Paris Top Easter Break Destination
Newcomer Lanzarote Sees Searches Double

London, 26th March 2007 -The latest statistics from Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, reveals that UK consumers are increasingly searching for Disneyland Paris and Lanzarote as they prepare for the Easter long-weekend.

The most searched for overseas destination for the week ending 17^th March is “disneyland paris” with searches increasing 45% from the same period last year to place it in the number one position.  Tenerife, Cyprus, New York, France and Amsterdam are still among the hot spots for Brits abroad, however this Easter we see a new arrival with searches for “cheap flights to lanzarote” doubling year-on-year, making it the tenth most popular overseas destination for Easter.

Top local destinations in Britain

As we enter the first week of spring, Hitwise UK Search Intelligence™ data reveals that “alton towers” is the most searched-for destination for Britons looking to stay closer to home during Easter, ahead of similar day attractions such as “thorpe park” and “legoland” which ranked third and fifth respectively in the Top 20 British destination searches for the week ending 17^th March 2007.

Interest still remains high for perennial favourites “centerparcs” and “butlins”, with five of the Top 20 search terms dedicated to different spellings of the word Centerparcs, however searches for “blackpool pleasure beach” increased 15% year-on-year and searches for “isle of wight” were up 17% - placing it for the first time amongst the top British Easter destinations.  

Hitwise UK Top 20 Searches for overseas destinations, week ending 17 March 2007

Hitwise UK Top 20 Searches for British destinations, week ending 17 March 2007

About Hitwise

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,200 global clients with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.

Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise’s patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search, and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into our easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement, and report on a range of online marketing programs.

Hitwise is a privately held company headquartered in New York City and operates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.

For up to date analysis of online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence Analyst Weblogs at weblogs.hitwise.com.

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Jannie Cahill
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