Three of the world’s major
hotel reservation networks - priceline.com, Travelweb
LLC and Active Hotels - are reporting that big cities are back in
vogue for Europeans and Americans planning to celebrate New Year’s
Eve 2004.In total, the three reservation services, which are all owned by
priceline.com, work with over 20,000 hotel properties around the globe.
Recently, the services independently surveyed thousands of actual hotel
reservation requests or bookings made by their customers for the night of
December 31, 2004, to see where Europeans and Americans preferred to
spend the holiday - and how those preferences might compare to past years.

Europeans’ New Year’s Eve preferences were measured by Active Hotels, one
of the leading hotel reservation services for the UK and continental
Europe.  Active Hotels found that London was the top destination for
December 31st, followed in order of preference by Paris, Barcelona and
Madrid.  Average bookings for New Year’s Eve were up approximately 100%
compared to a year ago.

Within the UK, Active Hotels found that the top six New Year’s Eve
destinations this year are, in order, London, Manchester, Edinburgh,
Birmingham, Glasgow and York.  For the first time since Active Hotels
started to compile this list in 2002, Manchester has knocked Edinburgh’s
famous Hogmanay celebrations into third place.

Priceline.com found that the number-one destination for Americans on New
Year’s Eve is none other than New York City’s midtown west neighborhood,
home to Times Square.
In fact, New York City neighbourhoods made up 60% of the top 10
destinations selected by priceline.com customers.  Other popular
destinations included Las Vegas, New Orleans, Chicago and Orlando.  (Full
list appears at end of release).  When priceline.com compiled its top
destinations list for New Year’s Eve 2001, right after 9/11, the most
popular destination for those who did mark New Year’s Eve was the southern
Nevada desert town of Las Vegas, whose various neighbourhoods made up 50%
of that year’s top 10 list.  New York City neighbourhoods held just two
spots in the 2001 top 10, with Times Square coming in a distant 3rd to Las
Vegas’ south and north Strip areas.

A New Year’s Eve booking survey conducted by Internet hotel reservation
service Travelweb LLC largely mirrored priceline.com’s findings.  New
York was the number-one spot this year, with Las Vegas, Chicago and
Orlando also ranking in the top 10.  Unlike priceline.com, Travelweb
hotel customers also put Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and Montreal
in their top 10.

Priceline.com’s Top Destinations For New Year’s Eve 2004

(Destinations are ranked in descending order of popularity among American
customers based on actual hotel booking requests made on the priceline.com
Web site between January 1 and December 7, 2004 for occupancy on the night
of December 31, 2004).

1 New York, midtown west

2 Las Vegas Strip vicinity

3 New York, midtown east

4 New York, midtown south

5 New York, upper midtown/Central Park south

6 New Orleans, French Quarter

7 New York, upper east side

8 Chicago, North Michigan Avenue

9 New York, downtown/Soho

10 Orlando, Disney World vicinity

11 New York, upper west side

12 Miami, South Beach

13 Las Vegas, Convention Center area

14 Orlando, Universal Studios/Sea World area

15 Las Vegas, west of Strip area

16 Las Vegas, UNLV area

17 New Orleans, central business district

18 Las Vegas, airport area

19 Las Vegas, Fremont St. area

20 Chicago, The Loop/Grant Park
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