Product category:
Media
News Release from: Cheapflights (with Howzat media and dohop.com)
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 22 August 2007
Americans drop London as top ten
destination
London has fallen from 7th position in July 2006 to 15th in July 2007 according to Cheapflights' analysis of the number of clicks made by US users searching for flight deals to London.
Flight price search and comparison site Cheapflights.com has seen traffic numbers grow strongly in the past year, both overall and for London, but the city's much lower destination ranking demonstrates the dramatic effect the dollar's weakness has had on US air travel to the UK In July 2006 London was ranked the 7th most popular destination for which deals were sought on Cheapflights US site
This article was originally published on Marketingservicestalk on 25 Apr 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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In July 2007, that ranking dropped sharply out of the top ten destinations to number 15.
This follows the US dollar's significant decline against the Pound year on year.
According to the US Federal Reserve's monthly average exchange rate for July 2006 the Dollar stood at 1.8433: In July 2007, the average exchange rate was 2.0355 which has clearly deterred potential US tourists from coming to the UK.
Normally the top destinations sought by Cheapflights' US users are seasonally stable with little variation.
Predictably these are the leisure destinations of Las Vegas (1), Orlando (2) and Atlanta (5) and the business destinations of New York (3), Chicago (4), and Los Angeles (6).
London's drop from its normal 7th position to 15th is very unusual and likely linked to the increased expense of travel driven by rising exchange rates against the Dollar.
Chris Cuddy, Cheapflights' Group Managing Director, said: "Cheapflights' record traffic last year reflects the fact that travellers are able find and compare more flights deals from more flights providers than anywhere else on the web.
"When our users search for cheap flight deals, tourist destinations are a major component".
"London is a perennial favourite destination for US citizens, however the unfavourable exchange rate has made the UK an expensive choice as the current comparative rankings clearly show".
Francesca Ecsery, General Manager, Cheapflights.co.uk, added: "For our UK users, New York is consistently the number one destination searched for on our UK site; with the cheap Dollar, it is therefore not surprising that the Dollar's weakness has caused a 38 per cent surge in traffic searching for deals to America's first city compared to July 2006 a year ago.
"Similarly the Pound's relative strength against the Euro has seen interest by price sensitive Brits for flights to Alicante, Malaga and Tenerife up from a year ago by between 50 and 60 per cent".
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