Valentine’s Day is coming – where are people traveling?

Most holidays see a spike in travel – particularly those that involve long weekends. But what happens on the romantic holiday of the year, which, in 2012, just so happens to fall on a Tuesday? Sure, card sales, flowers, chocolate and the prix fixe menu at The Melting Pot will go up in price, but will travel increase?

Kayak sourced the top five most romantic destinations based on both a) search volume (the number of searches for that location) and b) the percentage of change in search volume for Valentine’s Day vs. the weekends prior and following February 14th.


According to their data, New York City is 64% more popular over Valentine’s Day weekend than the two flanking it. According to Kayak data, cities seeing the most search volume for Valentine’s Day weekend include: New York City, Venice (Italy), Honolulu, Maui and Denver. While we’re not quite sure how Denver hits the list, we can only suppose it’s a stopping point for a romantic ski trip away.
Searches for US flights showed a spike for Valentine’s travel to New York City and Chicago.

Are you traveling to any of these cities this Valentine’s Day?

[Flickr via moominmolly]