It is the age-old problem of booking a holiday to get away from the crowds – how do you make sure you go to an undiscovered gem and not simply somewhere so bad no one wants to visit?
Tasked with finding the destinations that are about to be big this summer, a team of experts have analysed online search traffic to unveil the top 10 list of places that everyone will be talking about on Twitter and Facebook feeds this summer.
After looking at what people were searching for in the past 12 months, they came up with a list of potential holiday spots that have seen an unusual spike in interest – known as the largest “increased search percentage” year on year – as an indication of what is set to become popular.
TravelSupermarket, which compiled the list, said it had also been filtered by comparing search data with actual mentions on Twitter – adding substance to the buzz around the locations beyond simply what people have searched for.
Top of the list was Rovinj, in Croatia. With British tourists tending to favour the better-known likes of Split and Dubrovnic, this little coastal town has stayed beautiful, cheap and relatively undiscovered.
Trend-setter Sean O’Shea, 29, said he went last year after it was recommended by a work colleague and had a week of eating fresh seafood, drinking wine and reading books on the coast.