Priceline.com Top 50 Destinations For Columbus Day; How Dolly Parton and the Green Bay Packers Are Shaping Columbus Day Travel Plans

Business Wire, Oct 7, 2003

Business Editors/Travel Writers

NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 2003

Priceline.com(R) (Nasdaq: PCLN), the Name Your Own Price(R) travel service, today released its Top 50 destinations list for Columbus Day travel.

Priceline.com's Top 50 list is updated periodically throughout the year and uses actual hotel room demand (not projections) for certain key travel dates to track travel trends among U.S. consumers. Statistically, the priceline.com survey is one of the nation's largest in terms of sample size. For example, to create its Columbus Day Top 50 list, priceline.com picked a sample base of approximately 30,000 hotel room requests.

For the Oct. 11-13 long weekend, there are several new names on the list. Some are making their return after dropping off the Labor Day list. Others are appearing for the first time. Newcomers include #39 Lambeau Field, WI, site of an Oct. 12 matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs, and #43 Pigeon Forge, TN, home of DollyWood and a stone's throw from Gatlinburg ("the Honeymoon Capital of the South"). President George W. Bush can count on company. The White House area of Washington is #16. And, perhaps in honor of Christopher Columbus, Rome appears for the first time this year in the #46 spot.

The #1 most-requested destination was Chicago's Grant Park/The Loop neighborhood. As expected, major travel markets like Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles and Orlando make up about half of the top 50 destinations for the upcoming holiday weekend.

Priceline.com also found that consumers are continuing the trend of requesting more upscale hotel rooms when they travel. For the Columbus Day weekend, approximately 82 percent of priceline.com's demand was for 3, 4 and 5-star hotel rooms. That compares to 79 percent over Labor Day and 71 percent in April/May 2003. "Because priceline.com customers can save up to 40 percent or more over the prices they find on retail travel sites like Expedia and Hotels.com, they're leveraging those savings to move up to higher-quality accommodations that they might otherwise not be able to afford," said Chris Soder, priceline's Executive Vice President, Lodging and Vacation Services.

Priceline.com's Name Your Own Price hotel service is different from other services in that customers trade their travel flexibility for even deeper hotel room savings. Priceline.com customers choose the hotel star quality they want, the neighborhood and dates they want and the price they want to pay. Priceline.com then works with its hotel partners to find one willing to accept the customer's price. Priceline.com works with over 9,500 hotels in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Other highlights of priceline.com's Columbus Day Top 50 include:

-- International travel, including Asia, is on the rebound.

London neighborhoods took three spots on the list. Toronto

continued to be popular. Barcelona and Paris returned to the

top 50. Hong Kong and Rome made the list for the first time in

2003.

-- Viva Las Vegas. The gambling mecca occupied four spots on the

list. Requested neighborhoods spread as far out as UNLV and

northwest Las Vegas, indicating that business will be brisk

for the long weekend.

-- The Hawaiian Islands are a popular Columbus Day destination,

with Kona, Lahaina, Kamuela and Waikiki South all making the

list.

The Priceline.com Top 50 Destinations for Columbus Day

#1 Chicago The Loop/Grant Park

#2 Las Vegas Strip Area

#3 New York City Midtown West

#4 New York City Upper Midtown - Central Park South

#5 Chicago North Michigan Avenue

#6 New Orleans French Quarter

#7 New York City Upper West Side

#8 Boston Back Bay/Copley/Theater District

#9 Boston Downtown/Charlestown

#10 Orlando Disney World Vicinity

#11 San Francisco Union Square/Embarcadero

#12 Las Vegas West of Strip

#13 Orlando Universal Studios/Sea World

#14 Orange County Anaheim/Disneyland

#15 London Mayfair/Soho

#16 Washington, DC White House/Downtown

#17 Chicago River North Area

#18 New York City Midtown East

#19 Oahu Waikiki South

#20 Paris St. Germain/Latin Quarter

#21 Seattle Downtown

#22 Orlando West Disney Area

#23 San Francisco Convention Center

#24 New York City Midtown South

#25 New Orleans Garden District

#26 Miami South Beach

#27 London South Bank/Vauxhall

#28 San Antonio Riverwalk

#29 San Diego Downtown & Harbor Island

#30 San Francisco Union Square West

#31 Las Vegas Northwest Las Vegas

#32 London Westminster

#33 Las Vegas UNLV Area

#34 Philadelphia Downtown

#35 Greensboro Greensboro West

#36 Hong Kong Kowloon

#37 Barcelona Central District

#38 Chicago South Michigan Ave./The Loop

#39 Green Bay Lambeau Field Area

#40 San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf

#41 Baltimore Inner Harbor

#42 Maui Ka'anapali/Lahaina

#43 Pigeon Forge Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg

#44 Los Angeles Central L.A.

#45 Monterey Monterey/Pacific Grove

#46 Rome Vatican City

#47 Hawaii Kamuela

#48 Boston South Boston

#49 Toronto Downtown

#50 Hawaii Kona

About priceline.com

Priceline.com offers products for sale in two categories: a travel service that offers leisure airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises; and a personal finance service that offers home mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans through an independent licensee. Priceline.com operates the retail travel Web sites Lowestfare.com and Rentalcars.com. Priceline.com is part-owner of Travelweb LLC. Priceline.com licenses its business model to independent licensees, including pricelinemortgage and certain international licensees.