Sir Cliff Richard tops the summer charts

Sir Cliff Richard could be an unlikely beneficiary of the credit crunch as an online campaign aims to make his 1963 hit Summer Holiday the anthem of staycationing Brits for summer 2009.

46 years after its first release, Summer Holiday has been named as the number one British holiday song in a survey carried out by leading travel operator Shearings Holidays with 28% of votes.

Shearings has now launched an online campaign to try and get the song back into the charts along with other popular summer hits, creating a special mix to be promoted through online music store iTunes.

The survey also named Wham’s Club Tropicana (21%) and Madonna’s Holiday (17%) as the songs most likely to get you in the holiday mood.

Fiona Greenhalgh, head of sales and marketing for Shearings, said: “2009 looks set to be the year of the British holiday as people choose to save money and stay closer to home. We asked members of the public create the perfect British holiday playlist and have now made the top choices available to download from iTunes.

“We believe this will add to people’s enjoyment of what will hopefully be a long hot British summer. You never know, Sir Cliff might even make it back to number one.”

Shearings’ research also found that 89% of people questioned were considering a UK holiday this year, a trend which has already led to a 10% rise in Shearings domestic hotel bookings.

Figures suggest this growth is being fuelled by a high number of people switching from their traditional foreign breaks, with first time UK bookers represent 39.5% the total amount of potential bookings.

Fiona added: “This year we’re finding that an increased number of holidaymakers are falling in love with Britain again. We’re seeing increased interest across the entire range of the UK’s most-loved seaside resorts, cities and country retreats.”