One in Four Brits Haven't Been to Wales or Scotland

LONDON, March 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Scots are the most and English the least well-travelled nations within the UK

With one million more Brits travelling this year, but spending 4% less on average (1,920 per household pounds Sterling)*, Hotwire.com® expects more holidaymakers to look closer to home when planning their travels. Several bank holidays, the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics present a great opportunity to celebrate Britishness and explore the UK - a lot of which still hasn't been seen by many. In fact, one in four Brits haven't been to Wales or Scotland (24% and 28% respectively), a survey by discount travel website Hotwire.com shows.

When planning a holiday, Brits often turn to destinations abroad not realising what the UK has to offer. The survey found that Scots have travelled the most, with each person on average visiting 2.02 other countries within the UK. On the opposite side of the spectrum are the English, visiting an average 1.69 countries outside England. In fact, sometimes Brits know foreign destinations better than their own country. For example, Londoners know Paris better than Wales (71% of Londoners have been to Paris, 69% have been to Wales).

"UK is offering some great deals this year and not just in London where additional capacity has been added in anticipation of the Olympics, so residents have little excuse to not visit some of the country's most famous landmarks," said Fulvia Montresor, senior director at Hotwire.com. "With secret hotels rising in popularity, Brits can now save up to 50% off the lowest published room rates across the country making any trip to the UK's world-famous sites quite affordable."

When we do travel in the UK, what tourist attractions do we like the most? It turns out a third of Brits have visited the Tower of London and half have set foot in the British Museum and St Paul's Cathedral. Stonehenge and Edinburgh Castle are also very popular destinations outside of the capital. Still, many locals have plenty of attractions they need to visit.

Most popular attractions in the UK (as voted by Brits, not foreign tourists) - (percentage reflects how many Brits have ever visited a particular attraction)

1. Tower of London - 64%
2. British Museum - 56%
3. St Paul's Cathedral - 49%
4. Houses of Parliament - 48%
5. Stonehenge - 46%
6. Edinburgh Castle - 42%

If you are tempted to explore the UK this year, Hotwire.com recommends the following tips to get the best deal:

• Book your hotel 2-4 weeks in advance using a secret hot rate. Secret hot rates are hotel rooms made available by hotels at a deep discount under one condition: The name of the hotel is not disclosed until the booking is complete. Everything else is available ahead of booking, including approximate location, star rating, amenities and user reviews.
• Book your train journey in advance. Even booking a day or two ahead can lead to great savings when compared to buying a ticket on the day of travel. Up to 80% discount is available from most rail operators.
• If you are buying a flight, consider booking it mid-week and travelling mid-week. Often, airlines make promotions available during the week, but pull them before most people search their websites on the weekend.
• Book your car hire in advance using a refundable option, but keep checking websites like Hotwire.com for secret hot rates. It works the same way as hotels. You know what you are getting, just not the specific rental company. If you find a good deal on Hotwire, you can always cancel the original reservation.
• Consider 4 and 5-star hotels: The silver lining of the economic downturn is that everything is now on sale, especially 5-star and high-end resorts. Hotels and travel providers are doing promotions to get people traveling.

Survey Methodology

This study was conducted online by Harris Interactive among a total of 1,030 adults (aged 16+) within Great Britain.  Figures for age, sex, education, region and internet usage were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.

*The spending cost and the number of people travelling is based on an online survey conducted on 5th to 8th January, 2012, among 2,011  randomly selected British adults who are Springboard UK panellists by Vision Critical for Hotwire.com. The margin of error-which measures sampling variability-is +/- 2.2%. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and regional data to ensure samples representative of the entire adult population of United Kingdom. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

About Hotwire

Hotwire.com is a leading discount travel site that helps travellers' book hotel rooms at significant savings you can't find on many other travel sites. Launched in the U.S. in 2000 and in the U.K. and Ireland in 2011, Hotwire's unique partnerships with hotels worldwide offers holidaymakers deeply discounted hotel rooms that would typically go unsold. J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Independent Travel Web Site Satisfaction Study(SM) recognized Hotwire for ranking "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Independent Travel Web Sites, Three Years in a Row." Hotwire is an operating company of Expedia, Inc. CST: 2053390-40. NST: 20003-0209. For more information, visit http://www.hotwire.com/. Hotwire sites operate in 8 countries worldwide: http://www.hotwire.com, http://www.hotwire.com/uk, http://www.hotwire.com/ie, http://www.hotwire.com/au, http://www.hotwire.com/nz, http://www.hotwire.com/se, http://www.hotwire.com/no and http://www.hotwire.com/dk.  In addition to Hotwire, The Hotwire Group of websites includes: http://www.hotwire.com, http://www.travel-ticker.com, http://www.carrentals.com.  

Hotwire, Hotwire.com the Hotwire logo and Hot Rate are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Hotwire, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2012 Hotwire, Inc. All rights reserved. CST# 2053390-40.

Media contact
Vojtech Horna
Atomic PR
+44-0-20-7478-7801 
hotwireuk@atomicpr.com