The survey is based on more than 30,000 actual hotel room booking requests made by priceline.com customers for the May 29-31 long weekend.
"We're seeing very traditional travel patterns for Memorial Day 2004 that are almost a mirror of a year ago, when gasoline was 25% cheaper," said Chris Soder, priceline.com's Executive Vice President, Lodging and Vacation Products. "People seem intent on not letting fuel costs get in the way of their Memorial Day celebrations." Mr. Soder also said that priceline.com still has plenty of money-saving travel deals available for last-minute bookings.
For the second year in a row, the Las Vegas Strip area was the most requested Memorial Day destination. With the upcoming May 29th dedication of the new National World War II Memorial, Washington's White House/Downtown area was #2 on the list, up from #41 a year ago. In total, four Washington-area neighborhoods found their way on to the top 50 list (#2 White House/Downtown, ##35 Georgetown/Foggy Bottom, #40 Silver Spring and #49 Dupont Circle/Woodley Park).
Niagara Falls was back on the Memorial Day list for the 2nd straight year, with the U.S. side of the falls coming in at #11 and the Canadian side at #39. Beach areas were popular again, with spots like Virginia Beach, Myrtle Beach, Destin/Fort Walton, Key West, Hilton Head, San Diego, Santa Monica, San Juan, South Beach and Waikiki all making the top 50 list. Americans traveling internationally for Memorial Day mostly chose Canadian cities. Outside North America, London and Paris were the two international destinations to make the list. And, as expected, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Area made its annual appearance on the Memorial Day list at #36.
Priceline.com's 50 Most-Popular Vacation Destinations for Memorial Day are:
1 Las Vegas Strip Area
2 Washington's White House/Downtown Area
3 New York's Midtown West Area
4 New York's Upper Midtown/Central Park South Area
5 Chicago's North Michigan Avenue Area
6 New York's Upper West Side Area
7 Chicago's Loop/Grant Park Area
8 San Diego Coastal Area
9 Las Vegas' West of Strip Area
10 Miami's South Beach Area
11 Niagara Falls (U.S. side)
12 Downtown Boston/Charlestown Area
13 Montreal
14 New Orleans' French Quarter Area
15 Monterey/Pacific Grove Area
16 San Diego's Shelter Island/Point Loma Area
17 Orlando's Disney World Vicinity
18 Orlando's Universal Studios/Sea World Area
19 San Antonio's Downtown/River Walk Area
20 Baltimore's Inner Harbor Area
21 San Francisco's Union Square/Embarcadero Area
22 Waikiki South Area
23 Palm Springs' Rancho Mirage/Indian Wells Area
24 Downtown San Diego and Harbor Island Area
25 Downtown Seattle
26 Chicago's River North Area
27 New York's Midtown East Area
28 LA's Santa Monica and Marina del Rey Area
29 San Antonio West Area
30 Hilton Head Area
31 Virginia Beach Area
32 Downtown Toronto Area
33 Key West
34 Vancouver
35 Washington's Georgetown/Foggy Bottom Area
36 Indianapolis Speedway Area
37 San Francisco's Union Square West Area
38 Las Vegas' UNLV Area
39 Niagara Falls (Canadian side)
40 Silver Spring, MD
41 Paris' St. Germain/Latin Quarter Area
42 New York's Midtown South Area
43 Myrtle Beach Area
44 San Juan
45 Markham, Ontario
46 Charlotte's University Area
47 Boston's World Trade Center Area
48 London's Mayfair/Soho Area
49 Washington's Dupont Circle/Woodley Park Area
50 Destin/Ft. Walton Beach, FL Area
