Virgin Money Travel Insurance Ranks Holiday Friendly Towns

    NORWICH, ENGLAND, October 23, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Bournemouth is the UK's most holiday-friendly town edging out competition from Brighton, Portsmouth, London and Scarborough, new research from Virgin Money Travel Insurance shows.

The Dorset town was rated the best place for UK holidaymakers looking for the best stay-at-home summer destination with Loch Ness in last place in the analysis of 66 popular UK getaways.

The Virgin Money Travel Insurance research aimed to find the best holiday destinations following the so-called barbecue summer which never happened. ONS show however that despite the wettest July on record, overseas trips by Britons fell 12% in the year to July and were 16% down in May, June and July compared with last year.

Bournemouth scored strongly across most of the criteria used by researchers to rate the best UK holiday destination including weather, the cost of a week in a hotel, price and availability of restaurants, quality of beaches, overall cost and number of nearby tourist attractions - just in case the weather is not too good.

Other South Coast towns performed strongly with Brighton and Portsmouth in second and third with Scarborough fourth and London fifth. The capital was obviously let down by not having a beach.

Loch Ness was rated the worst partly because of bad weather with Wells in Somerset, the Shetland Islands, Southwold in Suffolk and Portrush in Northern Ireland also in bottom five.

Grant Bather of Virgin Money Travel Insurance said: "Everyone's idea of a great holiday is different and the UK has plenty of great places to visit but it's definitely Bournemouth for the all-round experience. The South Coast wins because of weather and beaches.

"Finding the formula for a perfect holiday is not a science, but good weather and beaches plus decent restaurants and hotels go a long way to making a good break while tourist attractions and the overall cost are important too.

"Plenty of people will love Loch Ness and if you spot the monster that's an added bonus. The research though is an attempt to find the most holiday-friendly town and provide a guide on where to go."

The most holiday-friendly towns are listed below along with the 10 least friendly:

Top 10 holiday friendly

Rank 1- Bournemouth
Rank 2 - Brighton
Rank 3 - Portsmouth
Rank 4 - Scarborough
Rank 5 - London
Rank 6 - Swanage
Rank 7 - Isle of Wight
Rank 8 - Eastbourne
Rank 9 - Gower Peninsula
Rank 10 - Bognor Regis & Blackpool

Top 10 least holiday friendly

Rank 1 - Loch Ness (Inverness)
Rank 2 - Wells
Rank 3 - Rank Shetland Islands
Rank 4 - Southwold
Rank 5 - Portrush
Rank 6 - Channel Islands
Rank 7 - Isle of Skye
Rank 8 - Lavenham
Rank 9 - St Andrews
Rank 10 - Canterbury

(See the attachment for full list of 65 towns & cities)

The best areas for good weather - including rain and sun and temperatures - are the New Forest, Portsmouth, London, Windsor and Oxford.

London inevitably tops the hotels rankings but Torquay, Exeter, Stratford-upon-Avon and the Cotswolds also do well. London again wins on tourist attractions with Birmingham, the Cotswolds, the Lake District and Leeds doing well.

For restaurants again it is London by a factor of 10 ahead of Glasgow, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham. But London is of course nowhere on beaches where it is the Gower Peninsula, Bournemouth, Isle of Wight, Scarborough, Skegness and Cleethorpes that do well with Brighton, Llandudno, Cromer, Whitley Bay, Swanage, Clacton and Bognor Regis also showing up strongly.

Clacton-on-Sea is the cheapest place to visit followed by Orkney, Bournemouth, Morecambe and Bognor.

-Ends-

* Research conducted in September 2009 by Virgin Money researchers using publicly available sources including www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/averages, expedia.co.uk, enjoyengland.com, visitwales.com, visitscotland.com, yell.co.uk, blueflag.org. Total for each town/city/area were calculated using rankings for average weather, hotel availability and cost, restaurant availability and cost, beach cleanliness and availability and cost.

For further information

Grant Bather
Virgin Money
Tel: 07834 844 427

Kevan Reilly/Jonathan Henderson/Chris Jarvis
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Tel: 0207 638 9571

About Virgin Money

Virgin Money is Virgin's financial services arm and was established in 1995.
Virgin Money has over two million customers and offers a wide range of financial products across lending (e.g. credit cards and personal loans), savings (e.g. deposits, investments and pensions) and protection (e.g. life insurance, travel insurance, home insurance and car insurance) to the UK market.
Virgin Money Personal Financial Service Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Registered Office: Discovery House, Whiting Road, Norwich NR4 6EJ. Registered in England no. 3072766. Entered on the Financial Services Register (www.fsa.gov.uk/register), Register Number: 179271

Website: http://uk.virginmoney.com

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