“Compete Releases Top Vacation-Related Web Sites for Summer 2010” plus 1 more

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Compete Releases Top Vacation-Related Web Sites for Summer 2010 Posted: 12 Jul 2010 06:30 AM PDT BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - 07/12/10) - Compete, a Kantar Media company, today released its rankings of the top ten sites in four vacation-related categories: Car Rentals, Theme Parks, Airlines and Vacation Packagers for May 2010 based on data from the company's panel of two million US-based internet users. Grounded for Summer In the past month, the number of unique visitors (UVs) to Car Rental sites increased 14.11 percent while traffic to Airline sites remained flat. Perhaps this summer, consumers are opting to drive rather than fly. Can anyone say road trip? Traffic for the top ten sites in the Car Rental category increased across the board last month. Carrentals.com and zipcar.com demonstrated the highest rates of growth for the month and were also the only two sites from the top ten list to enjoy both monthly and yearly growth. Bundles of Fun Vacation Packager sites are trending up -- an increase of 17.59 percent in the past month. The top ten sites in the category include airline-related packager sites southwestvacations.com, deltavacations.com and aavacations.com, retail giant Costco's travel site costcotravel.com, as well as five all-purpose vacation packagers. The dark horse and top Vacation Packager site based on traffic is voyageprive.com, an invite-only travel site that soared 260.15 percent in the past month and 156,041.74 percent over the past year. Theme Park-ing Only As summer approached and the temperature rose, so did the traffic volume for the Theme Park category, which has been climbing since February with a 26.43 percent rise from April to May -- not surprising given the popularity of theme parks during the summer. Most sites in the Theme Park top ten list demonstrated growth over the previous month with the exception of theme park juggernaut Disney's disneyworld.disney.go.com and disneyland.disney.go.com as well as dollywood.com. Sixflags.com remains the most heavily-trafficked site in the category, demonstrating a monthly growth of 33.36 percent. Despite the month's increase in traffic across the Theme Park category, nine out of the ten top finishers in the Theme Park category experienced a double-digit drop (%) over the past year. Information regarding aggregate Web categories is drawn from the Compete PRO Enterprise edition on Compete.com. For more information on the enterprise offering, please contact gblackmore@compete.com. About Compete Compete, a Kantar Media company, helps the world's top brands improve their marketing based on the online behavior of millions of consumers. Leading marketers such as Carlson Hotels Worldwide, Hyundai Motor America, Upromise, Chrysler, and Verizon Wireless rely on Compete's services to create effective online experiences and highly profitable advertising campaigns. Compete's online behavior database -- the largest in the industry -- makes the Web as ingrained in marketing as it is in people's lives. Compete was founded in 2000 and is located in Boston, MA, with offices throughout the U.S. For more information, please visit http://www.compete.com/. About Kantar Media Established in more than 50 countries, Kantar Media enables exploration of multimedia momentum through analysis of print, radio, TV, internet, social media, and outdoors worldwide. Kantar Media offers a full range of media insights and audience measurement services through its global business sectors -- Intelligence, Audiences and TGI & Custom. Combining the deepest expertise in the industry, Kantar Media tracks more than 3 million brands and delivers insights to more than 22,000 customers around the world. (www.KantarMediaNA.com). Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

County reaffirms ban on renting vacation homes Posted: 12 Jul 2010 12:32 AM PDT The Board of Supervisors reaffirmed Napa County's ban on vacation rentals last week, citing a local law designed to limit growth in Napa County. A Measure J vote would be required in order to allow private property owners in unincorporated Napa County to offer short-term rentals to vacationers, Supervisors announced June 29. Measure J — passed in 1990 and extended by Measure P two years ago — calls for any proposed change in zoning in the county's agricultural preserve to go before the voters. Previous Measure J votes include the approved expansion of Bistro Don Giovanni north of Napa and the Stanly Lane pumpkin patch in Carneros. Napa County voters also have rejected the expansion of a restaurant site on Oakville Grade, a market in Pope Valley and the creation of cabins near the Napa River in Carneros. Throngs of people spoke both for and against the county's ban on vacation rentals at the supervisors meeting June 29, after a months-long effort by some to overturn the prohibition. Technically, vacation rentals — rentals for 30 days or less — have been illegal in unincorporated Napa County since at least the late 1980s, but property owners routinely advertise and rent properties to visitors nonetheless. An estimated 300 vacation rentals are operating illegally in the unincorporated county, generating $45 million to $57 million in spending throughout the county annually. Supervisors voted in December to make the prohibition explicit, but a large group of property owners fought back, arguing that vacation rentals bolster the local economy and provide a practical alternative for some visitors. The board agreed to hold off on implementing the new ordinance, and critics of the ban unveiled a proposal to allow up to 300 vacation rentals to operate in the county for up to 20 weeks a year. The group predicted that these vacation rentals could boost the county's hotel tax revenue by up to $1.45 million annually. An attorney for the group assured supervisors that existing law gives the board the discretion to allow the proposal to move forward by deeming vacation rentals an "accessory use" — not the primary use of the residence. County officials promised to study the proposal, and last week they came back to the board with concerns. In order to define vacation rentals as an accessory residential use, the county likely would not be able to limit the number of vacation rentals to only 300, Napa County Planning Director Hillary Gitelman said. It also could be difficult to collect hotel taxes from the vacation rentals, since they'd be considered residential and not commercial uses. In addition, lawyers for the county argue that because vacation rentals might be inconsistent with portions of the county's general plan, which can be changed only by a vote of the people, "submitting the vacation rental proposal … to the voters for approval would seem to be the most appropriate approach." Supervisors — even those who have expressed an interest in allowing vacation rentals in the past — agreed. Acknowledging the arguments both for and against vacation rentals in the county, Supervisor Mark Luce said, "I think I'll leave that up to the voters." Liza Graves, one vocal proponent of vacation rentals, remained noncommittal about sending the idea to voters. "I don't know what the next steps will be," Graves said. No comments posted. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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