Cheapflights.com Report Shows Rising Interest in Eastern Europe

Europe is the next subject in the Cheapflights.com series of Rising Stars Reports. The 2010 Europe’s Rising Stars Report ranks the 100 most frequently searched destinations in Europe at Cheapflights.com, according to their change in popularity over 2009. Eastern Europe destinations jumped in popularity with travelers using Cheapflights.com. U.S. travelers seem to be branching out to explore new places in Europe, especially ones where the U.S. dollar goes further. In fact, the relative strength of the euro and British pound have dulled the American zest for London, Paris and Amsterdam, landing them all on the falling stars end of the list.

The reports measure the growth of popularity Cheapflights.com users, which may not reflect the broader market. Also growth statistics can be misleading as a destination with few searches can easily show profound growth with an increase of only a few more searches. Destinations enjoying enormous amounts of searches can appear sluggish even when they receive thousands of extra searches.

The report is compiled from search data from the first six months of 2009 and 2010. The list ranks the 100 most frequently searched destinations in Europe at Cheapflights.com according to their change in popularity over 2009. Eastern European destinations jumped in popularity with Cheapflights.com users, with two Ukraine cities (Lviv and Kiev) in the top five.

The top five destinations that saw an increase in popularity based on searches in 2010 compared to 2009 at Cheapflights.com: Lviv, Ukraine, searches grew by 94 percent; Tirana, Albania, grew by 79 percent; Zagreb, Croatia, grew by 66 percent; Kiev, Ukraine, grew by 62 percent; and Tbilisi, Georgia, grew by 61 percent.

On the flip side, the following cities below saw the biggest drop in popularity from 2009 to 2010 -- Cork, Ireland, at 0 percent growth; Florence, Italy, down 1 percent; Paris, down 2 percent; London, down 3 percent; and Amsterdam, down 12 percent.