Cheapflights.co.uk, the UK’s leading website in flight search and comparison, pinpoints the Eurozone’s new hotspots.

Having compared search data from the first six months of 2009 and 2010, Cheapflights.co.uk offers a glimpse into the latest travel tendencies of Brits in the 2010 European Rising Star Report. The list ranks the 100 most frequently searched destinations according to their change in popularity over 2009.

Pisa, Italy rings in at the top of the chart followed closely by Murcia, Spain then Paris, Dublin and Marseille, underscoring the summer trend for short breaks close to home.

Meanwhile, the destination that saw the biggest drop in popularity was Malta, with searches proving 29% lower than last year.  Having served as the ‘recession Riviera’ last summer due to low prices, interest has shifted away from the destination based on the increased ground costs.

“Last summer saw a trend for lots of affordable short breaks in favour of one long one.  While the long summer beach holiday has regained its popularity, in some cases short breaks are still the way to go, and lots of people are heading back to the Eurozone,” says Nadine Hallak, Travel Expert for Cheapflights.co.uk.

Of the 100 most searched destinations, below are the top 5 destinations that saw an increase in popularity based on searches in 2010 compared to 2009 at Cheapflights.co.uk:

On the flip side, the European destinations below saw the biggest drop in popularity from 2009 to 2010.

To see Cheapflights.co.uk’s full list of 100 destinations in the 2010 Destination Popularity Index, visit http://www.cheapflights.co.uk/promos/Europes-rising-stars/

Sister sites Cheapflights.ca and Cheapflights.com have run the same comparisons for travellers from Canada and the US.

Methodology

The 2010 Europe Rising Star Report was compiled by comparing the difference in search volume between 2009 and 2010 for the 100 most searched destinations in Europe.

This look at the rising and falling stars in Europe is the part in a series of regional destination popularity indexes from Cheapflights.