The UK’s leading budget accommodation provider, HostelBookers.com is launching a Twitter Easter egg hunt around Europe – using the popular social networking tool, Twitter.

This will be the first big competition in the travel industry based around Twitter; between Monday 6 and Thursday 9 April a HostelBookers Easter egg will backpack around four European cities, alluding to its whereabouts by offering budget travel tips for the destinations it will visit.

From Twitter, the egg’s journey will be fed across all HostelBookers’ social media channels, including Facebook, Bebo, Flickr and HostelBloggers.com, enabling users of all networking sites to participate in the competition.

Followers of the tips and images which will be added to the HostelBookers Twitter page each day can guess which four cities the egg has visited each day, entering their answer on the HostelBookers’ competition page by 12pm (midday) on Friday 10 April. A winner will be picked at random from the correct entries to receive the excellent prize – a week’s accommodation for two in a top Amsterdam hostel, St. Christopher’s Inn – The Winston.

David Smith, Chief Operating Officer at HostelBookers, said: “HostelBookers has been working with Twitter and social networking for over a year – we feel it is important to communicate with our customers in ways that they genuinely use for their everyday communication.

“It is fun and exciting for HostelBookers to be the first organisation to run a competition focused on Twitter, especially as its fast becoming a very relevant tool for travellers and backpackers across the world.”

Although followers will need to enter the competition at the end of the egg’s travels, there’s an added bonus for Twitter enthusiasts keeping track of the hunt each day; HostelBookers will buy a drink for the first person to join the egg in the bar where it’s finishing off its day of travelling.

Follow the Twitter Easter Egg Hunt on our blog!

NOTE TO EDITORS

About HostelBookers.com: Great Hostels. Free Booking. No Worries.

HostelBookers.com – launched in March 2004 – is a leading UK-based budget accommodation website. It offers a range of hostels and budget accommodation including hotels, B&Bs and apartments in over 2,500 destinations worldwide.

In November 2008 HostelBookers.com also received the UK’s Best Youth Product award at the British Youth Travel Awards (BYTA) run by BETA (British Educational Travel Association). The awards, are designed to provide a platform to celebrate and reward high achievers, gain recognition, and raise the profile of the work and individual successes of organisations engaged in youth, student and educational travel, to from and within the UK.

HostelBookers.com’s properties are reviewed and rated by customers and it remains the only major company in its sector to offer its services with no booking fees. HostelBookers.com also provides a range of free travel guides, travel news and worldwide events information