X Factor inspires British travellers to visit ‘judges’ houses’ holiday hotspots
Friday, 11 October 2013 10:06 AM
Antigua proved to have the X Factor this year
Following our article on the X Factor ‘judges’ houses’ locations, TravelSupermarket has revealed that there has been a surge of interest in holiday searches to the featured destinations and that Antigua was the most popular, with a 871 percent rise.
As the final 24 acts sung for their survival on Saturday and Sunday’s ITV1 X Factor episodes, British viewers were also captured by the exotic holiday destinations, as the performers and their mentors jetted off to St Tropez, Los Angeles, Antigua and New York.
TravelSupermarket found that Nicole Scherzinger proved to be the most influential judge this year, driving an 871 percent increase in package holiday searches to Antigua. In 2011, the winning judge Tulisa Contostavlos set a record with a 433 percent increase in searches to her Greek Island destination of Mykonos.
Last year, Louis Walsh’s trip with the groups to the party city of Las Vegas, also drove a spike in flight searches of 236 percent – over three times more interest than there was with Nicole Scherzinger’s visit to Dubai with the boys. However, this year, she has clearly beaten him, with almost 12 times more interest in her chosen destination than Louis.’ This year there has only been a 76 percent increase on search volumes to his destination, St Tropez.
This year’s online searches for package holidays to Los Angeles and New York also saw a significant boom – rising by 154 percent and 80 percent respectively.
Bob Atkinson, travel expert at TravelSupermarket said: “We saw a significant spike in searches for the destinations featured on this weekend’s X Factor. With winter just around the corner, holidaymakers are tempted by the sun-kissed, glamorous destinations that the contestants are going to with the judges, and it is only natural that they will go online and see if they can book a holiday so they can re-live the weekend’s antics for themselves.”
“For those set on emulating their X Factor heroes, my advice is to shop around online to make sure they get the best price on their flight and hotel, or their package deal. It’s a lot easier than some may think to go to these fabulous destinations,” Bob Atkinson continued.
TravelSupermarket compared the following searches on its site for the week before the judges’ houses episode with the week after the episode to determine which destination was most popular.
