Top Winter and Holiday Travel Destinations From CCRA

holiday shoppingSydney, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Florida, Las Vegas, and New York are popular international and U.S. winter and holiday travel destinations in 2014, according to CCRA Travel Solutions who announced the top five cities for winter and holiday travel in the U.S. and abroad. 

The report is based on travel agent hotel bookings made through the CCRAtravel.com hotel reservations portal. The key trend: hotel bookings suggest that travel professionals are sending their clients to warmer weather destinations and new cities south of the equator, where travelers can benefit from off-season and added-value winter deals.

The list of cities, in descending order, which have received the most bookings for arrivals between December 1, 2013 and February 28th, 2014 include:
The Top 5 U.S. Cities For Winter 2013/14:
    1.    Las Vegas
    2.    Fort Lauderdale
    3.    Miami
    4.    Anaheim *NEW

    5.    New York

Top U.S. destination Las Vegas is gearing up for New Year's. Here's a list of top tips for visiting Sin City to ring in the New Year:

RELATED: Top Travel Tips for New Year's Eve 2013 in Las Vegas

The Top 5 International Cities For Winter 2013/14:

    1.    San Juan
    2.    Sydney *NEW
    3.    Cape Town *NEW
    4.    Buenos Aires *NEW
    5.    London

Looking specifically at the busy holiday travel period of December 15th, 2013 through January 5th, 2014, the following cities have received the highest number of hotel bookings CCRA reports:

The Top 5 U.S. Cities For Holiday Travel:
    1.    Las Vegas
    2.    Miami
    3.    New York
    4.    Fort Lauderdale
    5.    Orlando

The Top 5 International Cities For Holiday Travel:
    1.    Buenos Aires
    2.    London
    3.    Rome
    4.    San Juan
    5.    Amsterdam

"Though we were not surprised to see that iconic holiday destinations such as London, Rome, and New York remain top cities for winter vacations, it was certainly interesting to find several new global destinations appear on our list, including Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires," said Dic Marxen, president and CEO of CCRA Travel Solutions.

"While travel agents are still booking their clients on great vacations to Florida, Las Vegas, and popular European cities, newly trending international destinations are luring more U.S. travelers this winter with their warm weather and off-season appeal," Marxen said.

Based on CCRA’s year-over-year winter hotel booking comparisons, Florida and Las Vegas continue to be popular U.S. winter travel destinations in 2014.

Additionally, Anaheim is new to CCRA’s Top Winter Cities list and Puerto Rico’s San Juan has increased in popularity, making it a leading winter travel destination for 2013/14 according to CCRA hotel bookings.

These winter and holiday travel trends are based on hotel bookings made by travel agents via CCRA’s proprietary hotel booking portal, CCRAtravel.com. 

The CCRA report comes not long after Travel Leaders released its own holiday travel tips for member agents. Travel Leaders advised its clients nationally how to adequately prepare for the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) airport security screening during the busy holiday travel season. Travelers will need both time and patience, Travel Leaders said.

RELATED: Travel Leaders Advises Clients on Holiday Travel

Visit www.CCRAtravel.com