The credit crunch has changed our habits: couples are choosing romantic breaks over more traditional gifts

Milan, 11 February 2010 – The most popular gifts for Valentine’s Day? The habits of the Italians are changing: forced to cut down on spending during the credit crunch, couples now prefer to spend time together and enjoy their relationships, forgetting their everyday concerns for a while. The evidence comes from a recent survey conducted over the past few days by SEAT Pagine Gialle, on the searches made on Paginegialle.it and the 89.24.24 Pronto PagineGialle service. The survey revealed which categories of gift were proving most popular among couples in 2010.

Only 2% of users wanted to surprise their partners with an expensive piece of lingerie, while 3% wanted to give their other halves perfumes or beauty products, which used to be among the most popular gifts. Users in Rome were particularly keen to find a perfume store, with the number of searches in this field being twice the national average.

46% of users wanted to find a restaurant to combine the pleasure of good food with a romantic evening for two, while about 30% of couples plan to spend the weekend away from home, searching among the many hotels and guest houses listed on the Seat Pagine Gialle portal. Strangely, the number of searches for motels in Milan was about twice the national average.

The more traditional Romeos are still in evidence, although in much smaller numbers. The number of people searching for florists or jewellers to affirm the promise of undying love was about 8% of the total (for each of the two categories).

Last but not least, some had the idea of tempting their beloved with chocolates, cakes or sweets: 5% of searches were for confectionery stores or sweet shops. This trend was particularly evident in Naples, where this type of search was 57% higher than the national average.

SEAT PAGINE GIALLE GROUP
The SEAT Pagine Gialle Group is one of the main operators at world level in the sector of multimedia profiled advertising, offering “print-voice-online” directories, as well as complementary communication services such as one-to-one marketing.

SEAT Pagine Gialle has been engaged in information services, and search and communications tools for over 80 years. It is a success story based on a brand that is familiar to everyone, a sales network employing over 2,000 persons, a technology that is constantly evolving and a database that includes 15 million households and 3.8 million businesses (2008 data), and a wide range of products guaranteeing a real integrated system of communications to about 600,000 Italian customers. A total of 59 million volumes distributed to the homes and offices of Italian subscribers (2008 data), about 35 million enquiries through the directory assistance service (2008 data), and over 330 million hits on online directories (2008 data) connect people and businesses, bringing together needs and solutions and promoting economic exchanges.

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Fax +39 011.435.3040

Burson-Marsteller