Emirates voted favourite holiday carrier

Emirates Airline has been voted the best carrier for holidays by members of the public.

The Listening Company and Alain Samson, a researcher at the London School of Economics, questioned 8,000 people about what would make their perfect holiday.

Emirates came out as the favoured carrier, while Virgin and Flybe also made the top five. However, Air France was found to be the worst airline for holidaymakers.

The survey also discovered that Canada was the number one destination for people planning their perfect holiday. Other popular destinations included Australia, Switzerland, Austria and South Africa.

Interestingly, it was found that people were most likely to trust holiday recommendations from friends and colleagues, rather than from travel agents and the internet.

"Positive word-of-mouth amongst consumers is an essential factor in driving company growth and even a one per cent reduction in negative word-of-mouth would lead to millions of additional revenue," explained Neville Upton, chief executive at the Listening Company.

"We wanted to see how this premise translated to the travel industry but moreover try and understand how people are booking their holidays in 2007."

Elsewhere in the report, it was found that 40 per cent of people make their holiday bookings over the internet. The remaining 60 per cent chose to book either over the phone or in person at a travel agent.

Currently, Emirates operates flights from the UK from Birmingham, Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester. A new service from Newcastle is due to start in September.