Spanish holidays still number one with Brits
Friday, January 8, 2010 17:40Spain is still the most popular holiday destination for British tourists according to data collected by flight search website Skyscanner.net. The site has just released a list of the top fifty travel destinations from UK airports, based on search data collected from Q4 2009.
Malaga holds the number one spot, with Tenerife and Alicante occupying second and third place. In total, eleven Spanish destinations make the top fifty, with five of them being in the top ten.
Top ten most searched destinations:
1. Malaga, (Spain)
2. Tenerife (Spain)
3. Alicante (Spain)
4. Orlando (USA)
5. Dalaman (Turkey)
6. Faro (Portugal)
7. New York (USA)
8. Palma (Spain)
9. Lanzarote (Spain)
10. Geneva (Switzerland)
Two major US destinations have crept into this year’s top ten – Orlando has risen twelve places since last year and has now made it to fourth, and New York has climbed five places to seventh position. In fact, a number of long haul and medium haul destinations either climbed, or made their first appearances in the top fifty. Bangkok, Sharm El Sheikh, Auckland and Las Vegas all received significantly more searches, and Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong appeared in the top fifty for the first time.
Johannesburg and Cape Town were also new entrants, with an increase in interest due to the forthcoming World Cup in 2010. This increased interest in longer haul destinations is a good indication that holiday makers are willing to spend more money on the perfect break, despite the recent economic climate.
Several destinations dropped significantly in the top fifty – Fuerteventura, Edinburgh, Murcia, Salzburg and London all lost more than ten places this year.
The full top fifty can be viewed here
From a digital agency point of view, this means that travel firms need to be investing in SEO campaigns that raise their search engine rankings for keywords relating to the top destinations via strategic link building and other appropriate methods. Link building is a particularly strong SEO tool, which combined with an overall online PR campaign can give one travel firm the edge over a competitor.
