Main Eurozone destination airfares and hotel prices down in March

Cheapflights sees March fares reduced up to 75% on year ago - trivago hotel index prices down by as much as 27%

London, April 1, 2009: Cheapflights.co.uk, the pioneer of and an international leader in independent online flight price search and comparison, together with trivago.co.uk, the hotel price search site and consumer hotel review site, have compared Eurozone March air fares and hotel prices against a year and six months ago respectively.

The Bank of England’s average Sterling / Euro rate for March has dropped 12 per cent year-on-year. Hence, due to the strength of the Euro, the Eurozone has suffered as a destination from the UK. Conversely, non-Euro mid and long-haul destinations have become more popular in Cheapflights’ UK search rankings over the past year as consumers look to stretch their holiday budgets further. Combined with the worldwide credit crunch this has driven down almost all Eurozone air fares and hotel prices compared in this survey. Cheapflights' data was from air fares taken from its handpicked deals pages in March 2008 and 2009. Hotel prices from trivago’s monthly hotel price index from September 2008 and March 2009 were used to establish hotel pricing comparisons over the past six months.

            Destination       Air Fare *%+/- on Mch 2009       Hotel Price**%+/- on July 2008

France  Paris                     £110               +20%                 £120             -10%                                    
            Paris Eurostar        £59                 -30%
            Nice                      £28                 -75%                  £85              -13%
            Cannes                  £28                -75%                   £86              -25%

Spain    Barcelona              £47                -40%                   £93              -18%
            Malaga                  £43                -53%                   £72              -12%
            Madrid                   £38                -51%                   £95              -10%
Italy      Rome                    £89                 Unch.                 £109            -17%

                                        *Return Fare Inc. Taxes               ** Price per room

Francesca Ecsery, General Manager, Cheapflights.co.uk, commented: “The trend over the past year has definitely been away from the old European destinations to places where that holiday pound goes that bit further. However, as can be seen there are some incredible return European city air fare deals around compared to a year ago. Also, accommodation prices in many cities in Europe have dropped significantly – therefore, don’t dismiss a European City Break because prices for fares and hotels have definitely been discounted significantly and are all less than two hours away!”

Trivago’s Managing Director, Malte Siewert, added: “We are also noticing an increase in searches for hotels further afield, but even with the weak pound it is still possible to find good hotel deals in Europe by comparing prices. Over the past six months we have seen a drop in hotel prices in southern Europe.”

Contacts:

Cheapflights Ltd:                                      trivago GmbH

John Barrington-Carver; Corporate PR           Sian Williams, PR Manager

Tel: +44 (0) 207 467 3535                            Tel:+44 203 002 5995

Mobile +44 (0) 7831 655 630

e-mail: corporate-pr@cheapflights.com          Email: sian.williams@trivago.co.uk

Comments

[linda]

Hotel prices in the UK really dropped down. London and Manchester hotel prices went down a lot more than 12 percent - about 20 percent at least! But I am sure that the weak pound will play well for the future of British tourism, and more tourists will come to Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and Dublin. Lots of European tourists are going to visit the UK in order to buy cheaper clothes, shoes, electronics etc.