City Breaks and Landmarks - What's the Attraction?

CHESTER, England, June 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

• EiffelTower more popular than many British treasures
• BuckinghamPalace is the UK's most popular landmark
• Top ten most visited attractions at home and abroad

More Brits have visited the Eiffel Tower than many UK attractions according to new research by comparison site, http://www.travelsupermarket.com. The Eiffel Tower in Paris proved to be the most popular overseas landmark, with nearly half of Brits having visited the 324 metre tall tower - an incredible 47 per cent.

The popularity of the French landmark amongst Brits, which sees total visitor numbers of almost 7million* a year, exceeds that of many closer-to-home national treasures such as St Paul's Cathedral (45 per cent) Edinburgh Castle (43 per cent), Stonehenge (40 per cent), London Eye (39 per cent) and Windsor Castle (37 per cent). The Eiffel Tower is also the most recommended landmark to visit in the world, followed by the Empire State Building, London Eye and Edinburgh Castle all taking second place.

The most visited landmark overall was Buckingham Palace with 58 per cent of Brits having made the journey to the Queen's main residence, confirming the British love affair with the Royal Family.

The research also revealed 67 per cent of Brits have visited a landmark whilst abroad with a fifth (20 per cent) having booked a holiday specifically to see a landmark.

Bob Atkinson, travel expert from travelsupermarket.com commented: "It is surprising to see that the Eiffel Tower is more popular than many UK landmarks, but Brits canalso take advantage of the plenty of wonderful and historic landmarks on their own doorstep. Tourists come from all over the world to see the likes of Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London, so we are in a fortunate position to be so close to these world-class attractions.

"If setting your sights a bit further afield, seven out of the top ten foreign landmarks are located within Europe, therefore within easy reach. Thanks to low-cost airlines you can bag a European flight for less than the cost of half a tank of petrol, so why not expand your cultural horizons and visit some of the landmarks Europe has to offer."

Top ten landmarks as visited by Brits - Home and Abroad

                                         Top Overseas
              Top British Landmarks       Landmarks
               (percentage of Brits  (percentage of Brits
    Position    who have visited)     who have visited)

        1     Buckingham Palace (58  Eiffel Tower - Paris
                   per cent)           (47 per cent)
        2       Houses of Parliament   St Mark's Square -
                 (55 per cent)      Italy (22 per cent)
        3       Tower of London (54     The Colosseum -
                   per cent)        Italy (21 per cent)
                                         Empire State
        4       Blackpool Tower (47   Building - New York
                   per cent)           (20 per cent)
        5       St Paul's Cathedral     The Acropolis -
                 (45 per cent)      Greece (14 per cent)
                                     The Leaning Tower of
        6       Edinburgh Castle (43  Pisa - Italy (13 per
                   per cent)               cent)
        7        Stonehenge (40 per   The Pyramids - Egypt
                     cent)             (12 per cent)
                                      Brandenburg Gate -
        8        London Eye (39 per     Germany (11 per
                     cent)                 cent)
                                     Sydney Opera House -
        9       York Minster (37 per    Australia (9 per
                     cent)                 cent)
       10       Windsor Castle (37 per  Alhambra Palace -
                    cent)           Spain (9 per cent)

Notes to editors

All figures unless stated otherwise taken from research carried out on behalf of travelsupermarket.com by Opinium in June 2011, among 2,023 adults residing in the UK.

*Information taken from the official Eiffel Tower website http://www.tour-eiffel.com/everything-about-the-tower/the-eiffel-tower-at-a-glance

About travelsupermarket.com

http://www.travelsupermarket.com is an online comparison service where customers can find the best value travel options for their needs and purchase over the internet. The website compares flights, car hire, hotels, cruise, package holidays plus dynamic packaging by searching hundreds of travel websites. The information supplied is unbiased and is designed to save the customer time and money.

The site thrives on offering its users accurate real time availability by taking information directly from suppliers such as Opodo, British Airways, Thomas Cook, Radisson, Sol Melia, easyCar, Auto-Europe and many more, ensuring users are presented the best possible price at all times. It searches:

• Over 650 scheduled, low cost and charter airlines from 39 individual suppliers
• Over 200,000 individual hotels from over 42 individual hotel suppliers
• Over 200 individual car hire providers from over 21 suppliers
• 1,000s of individual package holidays from over 34 suppliers

Additionally, travelsupermarket.com also compares prices on travel insurance and on airport car parking.

travelsupermarket.com is part of the Moneysupermarket.com Group PLC.

http://www.moneysupermarket.com is a website where consumers can compare personal finance products, save money and apply online. The website has several service areas including personal loans, credit cards, mortgages, current accounts, savings accounts, motor insurance, home insurance, travel insurance, health insurance, mobile phones, broadband and shopping.

travelsupermarket.com won 'Best Meta Search/Price Comparison Website' and 'Online Travel Brand of the Year' at the Travolution Awards 2009.

For further press information, contact:

Chris Bull, Lisa Sharland
3 Monkeys Communications
travelsupermarket@3-monkeys.co.uk
+44(0)20-7009-3100

Emma Morris
travelsupermarket.com
emma.morris@travelsupermarket.com
+44(0)1244-220-671