Travelers opt to ring in the New Year in traditional celebration cities and warm weather locales.
SAN FRANCISCO – Hotwire.com, a leading discount travel site, announced the top ten most popular destinations where revelers plan to ring in the New Year. This year, in addition to visiting popular festive cities like New York, Las Vegas and New Orleans, travelers are running from the winter weather and setting their sights on warmer, southern destinations, like Orlando, San Diego and Miami, which make up more than half of this year’s list.
Orlando is a popular New Year’s Eve getaway for families because many of its theme parks have big seasonal celebrations, so it’s no surprise that it returns to the top of the list again in 2012. Chicago, on the other hand, follows at second and has moved up two spots since last year. With a huge fireworks display over Lake Michigan, the Windy City has pushed perennial favorites Las Vegas and New York down a spot to third and fourth place, followed by international hot spot Miami, which is a newcomer to the list at fifth.
San Francisco – where people will line up along the Embarcadero to watch fireworks launched from barges in the bay – moved up one spot to sixth place, and is followed by another newcomer to the list, London, at seventh. Meanwhile, San Diego moved up one spot to number eight, followed by Los Angeles and New Orleans, which respectively fell from sixth and fifth place last year. Both LA and NOLA have nightlife scenes as good as, or better than, any other destination on the list, and combined with the warm weather that folks seem to be looking for this year, both can also prove especially enticing for New Year’s Eve travel.
The 10 most popular New Year’s destinations by hotel bookings, along with average nightly prices for each are as follows:
- Orlando, Florida
- Chicago, Illinois
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- New York City, New York
- Miami, Florida
- San Francisco, California
- London, England
- San Diego, California
- Los Angeles, California
- New Orleans, Louisiana
“Booking trends show that travelers are opting for warm weather backdrops for their New Year’s Eve celebrations alongside the bigger, more traditional celebration cities,” said Clem Bason, president of the Hotwire Group. “Although travelers can never go wrong ringing in the New Year in iconic places like New York or Las Vegas, some of the best deals and great experiences can be found in cities like Orlando, Chicago and San Diego, where you can stay over the holiday for under $100 per night.”
*The 10 most popular New Year’s destinations are based on hotel bookings made on Hotwire.com on December 4, 2012, for travel between December 30, 2012 and January 2, 2013.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
