Travelago (www.travelago.com), the world`s most comprehensive online video destination guide for business and leisure travel, has released the first Top 100 Destination Video Index.
This index ranks destination videos played by visitors through the Travelago streaming video destination guide and its distribution partners.
“Streaming video via the Internet is becoming an easy-to-use resource for the traveler who needs to research destinations and their hotels, restaurants, attractions and activities,” said John Bobel, Travelago President and Co-Executive Officer.
“Our growth during the second quarter of 2001 has shown that Internet users’desire streaming video and rich multimedia to provide better, more in-depth travel information. Users are now more familiar with streaming video and understand how to optimize their streaming experience. The growth of broadband access both in the home and at work is accelerating the use of streaming video for travel research, planning and purchase.”
The Travelago Top 25 Destination Videos are:

1. Pearl Harbor Memorial2. Los Cabos, Mexico3. Hawaii4. Chicago, IL5. San Francisco, CA6. Montreal, Canada7. Jamaica8. Cancun, Mexico9. Orlando, FL10. Washington, DC11. Las Vegas, NV12. Bermuda13. Brazil 14. Bali, Indonesia15. Switzerland16. Oahu (Hawaii)17. South African Coast18. Paris, France19. Maui (Hawaii)20. Venice, Italy21. Sydney, Australia22. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico23. Hangzhou, China24. Kauai (Hawaii)25. Italy (The complete index can be found on page 3 of this release.)
“We expected to see some growth in the use of our extensive streaming video collection of Hawaii because we promoted Pearl Harbor as a destination when the movie recently debuted,” said Bobel. “The abundance of Pearl Harbor video viewers exceeded our expectations. During the month of May, we streamed more than 30,000 video clips to visitors throughout the world via Travelago and its affiliate Web sites and distribution partners.”
Travelago is also experiencing one of the highest banner ad click-through rates on the Internet. Travelago recently implemented 120x240 vertical banners that highly target videos, destinations and featured properties and vacation packages. Hotel advertisers using these new banners have received click-through rates of up to 33%.
Once a visitor has clicks on a hotel banner, he or she is presented with additional property information, including videos, and can make reservations directly through the hotel.
“We’re very pleased with the results from these online advertising trials. Travelago was an early adopter of the larger banner advertisements,” said Bobel. “We’re looking to expand our inventory as more advertisers recognized the power of the Travelago network and the ultimate efficiency of larger banner ads that are targeted to specific destinations and travelers.”
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