Crystal release top 20 cities league

Report by John Lavabre

PARIS, Amsterdam and Barcelona have retained their respective positions as the top thee city breaks sold by Crystal Holidays during the year 2000.

Barcelona performed particularly well in the Crystal Cities top 20 league. It saw an 18% increase in sales, although this was not enough to push it into second place.

Rome, last year’s number six, knocked New York from fourth position into fifth. Rome’s success has been put down to its year-long Millennium celebrations.

Entering the charts for the first time were Munich in sixteenth place and Verona at nineteenth. Copenhagen reappeared in the charts at number 20 following a year’s absence.

Vienna, however, dropped three places to thirteenth. Crystal has put this down to adverse publicity about the country’s political situation.

Crystal Cities product director Alan Betty said: “It was a year of mixed fortunes which demonstrated how influential low cost and convenient travel, feasts and festivals can be to a destination, and how adverse publicity can cause a long-term decline. Overall the market for city breaks was again very buoyant.”