The
Eternal City is movin' on up the list of top international
destinations of Carlson Wagonlit agencies according to Carlson's
2006 Fall Travel Trends Survey, which polled 334 Carlson Wagonlit
Travel Associates agents, owners and managers throughout the U.S.
about what they were selling.
Rome placed fourth
among international destinations, a jump from seventh in last
year's poll and ninth in the 2004 Carlson survey. The city was
listed by 33.8% of agents polled.
Carlson asked its
subjects to produce a list of their top five destinations, then
added all the responses together and ranked them according to which
destination got the most responses.
The agencies were
not asked to rank their top five.
According to this
formula, the top international destination was not a destination
but a style of travel in a region: Caribbean cruising.
The second-place
international destination was Cancun, followed by Riviera Maya,
Mexico. These rankings were the same as in the 2005 and 2004
surveys.
Besides Rome, the
only destination to rank in the top 10 outside of greater North
America was London, which finished in sixth in 2006, in 10th in
2005 and in sixth in 2004.
Only 31.7% reported
that a majority of their customers have valid passports.