UK Dominates Europe’s Fastest Growing Destinations List

LONDON, December 8, 2011 -

TripAdvisor reveals the European destinations sparking greatest rises in tourism interest in 2011; Ilford takes top spot

TripAdvisor^®, the world’s largest travel site*, today reveals the European destinations that saw the biggest increase in traveller interest based on traffic uplift on TripAdvisor over the past year. British destinations in particular have seen a significant soar in interest, laying claim to eight of the ten destinations in the list, including the top finisher, Ilford.

“These destinations may not all be most obvious tourist hotspots, but for one reason or another they’ve sparked rapidly rising traveller attention this year,” commented Emma Shaw, TripAdvisor spokesperson. “For the British destinations, and especially Ilford, it’s encouraging news - and it’s likely we can attribute much of this spike in traffic to increased interest generally in the UK as excitement builds around next year’s Olympics.”

Ilford in East London tops the European list, followed by Valras-Plage in France, with the UK’s Trafford in third place. Other UK destinations in the list include Tamworth, Brandon, Salford, Warrington, Warminster and Hounslow in fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth places respectively.  

Europe’s top ten fasting growing destinations for 2011 are as follows*:

1. Ilford, Essex - UK
2. Valras-Plage - France
3. Trafford, Greater Manchester - UK
4. Tamworth, Staffordshire - UK
5. Brandon, Suffolk - UK
6. Yalta - Ukraine
7. Salford, Greater Manchester - UK
8. Warrington, Cheshire - UK
9. Warminster, Wiltshire - UK
10. Hounslow, Middlesex - UK

For more information on these destinations, visit www.TripAdvisor.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITOR:

* List is based on the biggest increase in page views for search traffic year-on-year, across TripAdvisor branded sites globally, comparing, 1^st Jan - 31^st Oct 2010 versus the same dates in 2011

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor® is the world’s largest travel site, enabling travellers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from real travellers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features (including Flights search, TripAdvisor Mobile and Instant Personalization) with seamless links to booking tools.

TripAdvisor® Media Group, operated by TripAdvisor LLC, attracts more than 65 million unique monthly visitors* across 19 popular travel brands**. TripAdvisor-branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 50 million unique monthly visitors***, 20 million members, and over 50 million reviews and opinions. The sites operate in 30 countries worldwide****, including China under daodao.com. TripAdvisor also operates TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division that provides the tourism industry access to TripAdvisor’s millions of monthly visitors. The division includes Business Listings, which allows hoteliers to connect directly to millions of researching travellers, and Holiday Rentals, which helps property managers and individual home owners list their properties and showcase hotel alternatives.

TripAdvisor Media Group websites have been recognized as top travel resources in 2010 by Conde Nast Traveller, Good Housekeeping, TIME magazine and Travel + Leisure.

TripAdvisor Media Group generated $486 million in revenue in 2010. TripAdvisor and the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Group are operating companies of Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE).

TripAdvisor and the TripAdvisor logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TripAdvisor LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

©2011 TripAdvisor LLC. All rights reserved.

*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Media Group Sites, Worldwide, August 2011

** In addition to TripAdvisor, The TripAdvisor Media Group of websites includes: www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.everytrail.com, www.familyvacationcritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.independenttraveler.com, www.onetime.com, www.seatguru.com, www.sniqueaway.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.travel-library.com, www.travelpod.com, www.virtualtourist.com, www.whereivebeen.com, and www.kuxun.cn.

***Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, Worldwide, August 2011

**** TripAdvisor sites operate in 30 countries worldwide: www.tripadvisor.com, www.tripadvisor.co.uk, www.tripadvisor.ca, www.tripadvisor.it, www.tripadvisor.es, www.tripadvisor.de, www.tripadvisor.fr, www.tripadvisor.jp, www.daodao.com, www.tripadvisor.in, www.tripadvisor.se, www.tripadvisor.nl, www.tripadvisor.com.br, www.tripadvisor.com.tr, www.tripadvisor.dk, www.tripadvisor.com.mx, www.tripadvisor.ie, www.tripadvisor.com.au, www.tripadvisor.com.sg, www.tripadvisor.co.kr, no.tripadvisor.com, pl.tripadvisor.com, th.tripadvisor.com, www.tripadvisor.ru, www.tripadvisor.com.gr, www.tripadvisor.co.id, www.tripadvisor.com.ar, www.tripadvisor.tw, www.tripadvisor.com.my, and www.tripadvisor.com.eg.

Laurel Greatrix, UK Media Relations Consultant, 7 Soho Square, London W1D 3QB, Office: +44(0)203-194-2150, Mobile: +44(0)777-801-3639