Top Summer Hot Spots for Travel

 

Vegas and Orlando are not passé at all when it comes to destinations for U.S. travelers. Sure, they aren"t exactly exotic spots ... but they are tried and true and perennially offer something for everyone. For the seventh year in a row, Orlando and Las Vegas remain the most popular summer destinations booked by travel agents, according to the Hot Spots for Summer survey of the American Society of Travel Agents.  Orlando earned the top spot with a 17.2 percent share and Las Vegas maintained the second best spot with 16 percent of the votes.

 

The runners-up in order from third place to tenth place were: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Honolulu, San Diego, Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York City. New York City has continued to lose its stronghold ... it used to hold the number three spot each year in the survey. Honolulu moved up from number eight to number six in this year's survey.

 

Orlando, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Tampa are a big boon for Florida. When looking at which states, not cities, see the most summer travelers as booked by travel agents, Florida again came out on top in 2009, accounting for 20.3 percent of all responses. Nevada drew the second largest number of responses--a 16.1 percent share--with almost all the travel for Las Vegas. This year, California, New York and Hawaii took third, fourth and fifth places respectively.

 

 

For Americans traveling abroad, the top four international destination cities remained the same for the seventh year in a row, with top-ranked London receiving a 9.9 percent share of the vote followed by Rome (9%), Paris (7.5%) and Cancun (6.7%). Punta Cana, Puerto Vallarta, Barcelona, Venice, Florence, and Amsterdam round out the remainder of the top ten international destinations.

 

When looking at the overall most popular region, Italy was the number one country booked by U.S. travel agents with an 18.1 percent share.  Mexico came in second with 17.1 percent, and the UK received a 12.3 percent share of the votes. The shares for Italy and the UK are down from previous years, suggesting the weak dollar is shifting some travel away from Europe, allowing Mexico to attract more Americans than in previous years.