Hotels.com reports Irish increasingly seeking the sun in winter

Hotels.com, the world's leading accommodation booking website, has revealed an increase in searches for winter sun holiday destinations among Irish travellers in the first two weeks of January this year when compared with the same period in 2009.

The increased searches for winter sun destinations on Hotels.com indicate that the Irish are looking to escape to warmer climes to get them through what has so far been a cold and wet start to the year.

Of the most popular destinations for travel searches, Miami Beach in Florida showed the biggest increase year-on-year, up by 89 per cent for the first two weeks of January 2010 when compared to the same period in 2009.

Searches for hotels in Gran Canaria rose by 50 per cent when compared with the 2009 figures, whilst searches for Hurghada in Egypt; Bali in Indonesia and Phuket in Thailand each increased by 46 per cent, 30 per cent and 27 per cent respectively.

Possible reasons for the trend could be attributed to the fact that Ireland has experienced such unsettled weather conditions this winter and that hotel prices continue to fall worldwide, offering better affordability for all travellers.

Alison Couper, director of communications for Hotels.com commented;

"The search results indicate that the Irish are seriously seeking some sun this winter and taking advantage of the excellent hotel room deals available right now."

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Notes to editors
Statistics compiled by Hotels.com cover searches on the website from January 1st-12th 2009 when compared with January 1st-12th 2010.
The 2010 Hotels.com January sale runs until the February 15th for stays up until April 15th 2010.

About Hotels.com
As part of the Expedia group which operates in all major markets, Hotels.com offers more than 110,000 quality hotels, B&Bs and serviced apartments worldwide including New York hotels, Edinburgh hotels, Dublin hotels and London hotels. If a customer can find the same deal for less on a prepaid hotel, Hotels.com will match it. Hotels.com benefits from one of the largest hotel contracting teams in the industry negotiating the best rates for its customers, plus there are 1.3m reviews from users who have actually stayed in the hotels to ensure customers make an informed choice when booking. Hotels.com won the Gold Award for best hotel booking site in Webuser magazine in February 2009.

For further media information please contact:
Cordy Griffiths
Hotels.com
42 Earlham St
Covent Garden
London
WC2H 9LA
020 7019 2268
www.hotels.co.uk