Where to go on holiday 2014: These are the top 10 destinations that everyone will be talking about this summer
Analysis of search traffic gives advance warning of the untouched places your friends will be bragging about in 2014
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Your support makes all the difference.It is the age-old problem of booking a holiday to get away from the crowds – how do you make sure you go to an undiscovered gem and not simply somewhere so bad no one wants to visit?
Tasked with finding the destinations that are about to be big this summer, a team of experts have analysed online search traffic to unveil the top 10 list of places that everyone will be talking about on Twitter and Facebook feeds this summer.
After looking at what people were searching for in the past 12 months, they came up with a list of potential holiday spots that have seen an unusual spike in interest – known as the largest “increased search percentage” year on year – as an indication of what is set to become popular.
TravelSupermarket, which compiled the list, said it had also been filtered by comparing search data with actual mentions on Twitter – adding substance to the buzz around the locations beyond simply what people have searched for.
Top of the list was Rovinj, in Croatia. With British tourists tending to favour the better-known likes of Split and Dubrovnic, this little coastal town has stayed beautiful, cheap and relatively undiscovered.
Trend-setter Sean O’Shea, 29, said he went last year after it was recommended by a work colleague and had a week of eating fresh seafood, drinking wine and reading books on the coast.
Second on the list was Warsaw, Poland. TravelSupermarket’s experts said the vibrant city represented an “eclectic mix of contemporary art and medieval landmarks” – with cheap UK flights making it very accessible for the more refined traveller.
Philippa Mander, 30, went last month for a weekend break and said the city was “stunning” at night, with a buzzing nightlife and “moving” monuments and museums.
Completing the top three was St Petersburg, Russia. It has a growing “hipster” scene to accompany its rich history and 22-year-old Max Haddock described it as “edgier and more low-key than Moscow”.
TravelSupermarket’s travel expert, Bob Atkinson, comments: “We’ve been keeping an eye on which destinations have been searched for over the last year to uncover the top holiday hot-spots that have seen an unusual increase in interest.
“It’s often the case that new destinations start to come into our psyche as a result of a music or sports events, or even film and TV programmes from dramas to documentaries and we find our attention suddenly drawn towards a new place we might never have considered before.
“The good news is, low-cost air travel has given us the confidence and the opportunity to try out these up-and-coming locations. It means we can now get away for short breaks easily and affordably and be much more experimental with our choice of destination – having fun discovering new places in the process.”
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