KAYAK Summer Travel Hacker Guide Helps Travelers Navigate Busiest Travel Season

Guide Reveals Increased Searches to Europe, Summer Events Driving Demand

STAMFORD, Conn., April 28, 2015 /CNW/ -- KAYAK, the world's leading travel search engine, today announced the summer edition of the KAYAK 2015 Travel Hacker Guide. The guide is a resource for travelers looking for information on popular, trending and European summer destinations and the inside scoop on trending hotels and road trip inspiration. It was curated by a team of data scientists at KAYAK who analyzed summer searches to identify insights to make travel planning easier this summer.

The summer edition of the KAYAK Travel Hacker Guide reveals the following:

• All eyes are on Europe. Flight searches to Europe are up seven percent compared to last summer, and cities that use the euro filled all ten spots on the Top European Summer Destinations list.  
• Half of the Top Trending Summer Destinations¹ featured in the guide are in Europe: Milan, Italy; Reykjavik, Iceland; Copenhagen, Denmark; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Madrid, Spain.
• Speaking of top trending destinations, Toronto increased in searches by 44 percent since last summer, Vancouver increased by 32 percent, and Calgary increased by 27 percent.
• Summer events are driving demand. Destinations hosting major music, art festivals and sporting events took top spots on the Top Trending Summer Destinations list: Toronto (Pan Am Games), Vancouver (Women's World Cup final), Edinburgh (The Fringe) and Copenhagen (Roskilde Festival) and Milan (World Expo).
• Adventurous travelers and those looking for exotic destinations will find deals. Tel Aviv, Israel, leads the Top Summer Deals Destination² list, with a 22 percent decrease in airfare compared to last summer. Airfare to Johannesburg decreased 15 percent and Bangkok dropped 16 percent.
• Hit the road in June. In many of the popular rental car cities featured on the Top 10 Summer Road Trip list, car rental prices start to climb in July. Rent a car in June to find the best deals.

"With the weakened euro making European travel even more accessible, low gas prices and exotic destinations offering deals, this summer is a great time to explore a new place," said David Solomito, North America brand director for KAYAK. "The summer edition of the Travel Hacker Guide was designed with those factors in mind – with the goal of offering information that would be most helpful to travelers."

The summer edition of the Travel Hacker Guide features four new top-10 lists: Top 10 Trending Summer Destinations, Top 10 European Summer Destinations, Top 10 Summer Deal Destinations, and Top 10 Summer Road Trips. For each destination, the guide offers median airfare costs, top hotels and a 'Hacker Tip,' while the reprised Global section provides regional insights on the best times to book your flight, along with the cheapest days to depart and return.

The inaugural version of the Travel Hacker Guide was launched in February of 2015. Travelers can explore the summer edition of the guide by visiting www.KAYAK.com/summertravelhacker and search flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages by visiting www.KAYAK.com.

¹ Flight Destinations with the Greatest YoY Increase in Share of Search Traffic of the top 100 Most Searched.
² Flight Destinations with the Greatest YoY Drop in Avg Clicked Display Price of the top 100 Most Clicked.

ABOUT KAYAK
KAYAK is the world's leading travel search engine. The company's websites and mobile apps allow people to easily search hundreds of travel sites at once for flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages. Each year, KAYAK processes more than one billion searches for travel information and has local websites and mobile apps in more than 30 countries and 18 languages. KAYAK is an independently managed subsidiary of The Priceline Group.

SOURCE KAYAK

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