NORWALK, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN - News) today released the results of its 6^th annual survey of the 50 most-popular destinations for the upcoming Independence Day weekend. The survey is based on more than 30,000 hotel room booking requests made by customers using priceline.com’s Name Your Own Price® hotel reservation service. Because the survey is based on credit card-backed booking requests, and not on consumer preference polls or votes, priceline.com believes the annual survey is one of the more accurate predictors of July 4th travel trends.

Commenting on the survey, priceline.com’s in-house “Travel Ekspert” Brian Ek said, “The big surprise this year is the emergence of New Orleans’ downtown/convention center area as the #1 July 4^th destination. This is the first time New Orleans is in the top spot for the holiday and could signal the completion of the city’s comeback as a tourist mecca following Hurricane Katrina.”

Looking at the rest of the list, Ek commented, “Travel trends for the upcoming long weekend are reflective of the economy and the holiday itself. The list is heavy in destinations that are reachable by car for large segments of the population. Given the cold, wet weather in the eastern half of the country, I was a bit surprised to see so many beach destinations on the list. However, a blanket and a good book do make for a cheap getaway, assuming the weather cooperates. With some smaller communities not being able to afford fireworks this year, the big cities with their free or low-cost holiday events are indicating strong turnouts.”

In New York City, July 4^th visitors can look forward to Macy’s fireworks display, a concert in Battery Park and Nathan’s annual hot dog eating competition. Chicago is hosting Blues Fest 2009, the Grand Park Music Festival and fireworks at Navy Pier. Boston has the 6-day long Harborfest celebration with fireworks featuring the Boston Pops and Neil Diamond. Disney resorts will be hosting fireworks in Orlando. New Orleans is featuring its “Go 4^th On The River” festival. And Washington, DC, will have the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, concert at the Washington Monument, an Independence Day parade and fireworks on the National Mall.

Priceline www.priceline.com said it still has hotel rooms, airline tickets, vacation packages, rental cars and cruises available for the long weekend, often at significant discounts over other online travel reservation services.

The Priceline Top 50 Destinations List for July 4th 2009

About Priceline.com^® Incorporated

Priceline.com Incorporated (Nasdaq: PCLN - News) www.priceline.com provides online travel services in 28 languages in over 78 countries in Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Included in the priceline.com family of companies is Booking.com, a leading international online hotel reservation service, priceline.com, a leading U.S. online travel service for value-conscious leisure travelers, and Agoda.com, an Asian online hotel reservation service. Priceline.com believes that Booking.com is Europe’s largest and fastest growing hotel reservation service, with a network of affiliated Web sites. Booking.com operates in over 70 countries in 22 languages and offers its customers access to over 66,000 participating hotels worldwide.

In the U.S., priceline.com gives customers more ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises than any other Internet travel service. In addition to getting great published prices, leisure travelers can narrow their searches using priceline.com’s TripFilter advanced search technology, customize their search activity through priceline.com’s Inside Track features, create packages to save even more money, and take advantage of priceline.com’s famous Name Your Own Price® service, which can deliver the lowest prices available.

Priceline.com also operates the following travel websites: Travelweb.com, Lowestfare.com, RentalCars.com and BreezeNet.com. Priceline.com also has a personal finance service that offers home mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans through an independent licensee. Priceline.com licenses its business model to independent licensees, including priceline mortgage and certain international licensees.

Priceline.com
Media Information:
Brian Ek, 203-299-8167
brian.ek@priceline.com