Study released by leading international calling company reveals insights into the holiday calling habits of expats from hundreds of countries across the world.

ASHBURN, Va., Feb. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- VIP Communications, Inc., a leading provider of international calling services and solutions, today announced the official release of its 2012 Valentine's Day Holiday Calling Report, a comprehensive report that provides an inside look at the holiday calling trends and habits of expat communities from over 100 countries throughout the world. 

To conduct the report, VIP Communications analyzed the increase in average daily call volume, average time spent on the phone, and several other calling patterns of more than 50,000 expat customers from over 100 countries.  Key highlights from the report include:

• Valentine's Day Among Top 5 Most Popular Calling Days of the Year: Valentine's Day ranks behind Christmas, New Year's Day, as well as Mother's and Father's Day, as the most popular calling days of the year for expats. On average, call volume is 9 percent higher on Valentine's Day than all other days, which ranks ahead of other popular holidays including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter and July 4th. 
• Swiss and Irish Feel the Love on Valentine's Day (and Mother's Day, too!): The study finds that Swiss expats residing in the United States made the most calls on Valentine's Day with an increase in call volume of 215 percent. Other notable European countries that experienced similar increases included the United Kingdom (103 percent increase) and Ireland (68 percent increase). Additionally, both Switzerland and Ireland also experienced among the highest increases in call volume on Mother's Day. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom experienced steady traffic on Mother's Day, but significantly higher call volume on Father's Day.
• Where is the Love Netherlands?: Valentine's Day calls in the Netherlands saw the largest volume decrease with 82 percent.
• Italians Lose Love on Valentine's Day from Last Year: Interestingly, Italian expat calls on Valentine's Day have plummeted since last year, and are now ranked in the bottom 10. After experiencing the largest increase in call volume of all European countries on last year's Valentine's Day calling list , Italians have experienced a 61 percent decrease on this year's list. Additionally, both France and Spain also dropped off of the top ten list from last year.
• African Expats Dominate Valentine's Day Calling List: According to this year's report, 60 percent of the countries that ranked in the top 10 in Valentine's Day call volume were African nations. Algeria had the second largest Valentine's Day calling increase at 148 percent above their daily average, while other African nations rounded out the Top 10, such as Sierra Leone (86 percent), the Ivory Coast (68 percent), Cameroon (66 percent), Ghana (64 percent), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (62 percent).
• Not All African Countries Feel the Love: While the Top 10 was dominated by African countries, there were a few exceptions. In particular, Malawi and Zimbabwe ranked in the bottom three with a decrease in calls of 81 percent and 71 percent respectively on Valentine's Day. Rwanda and Kenya ranked in the bottom 10.
• Kiwi Love on Valentine's Day and New Year's: New Zealand had the third largest Valentine's Day increase with 109 percent. They also saw a large increase in New Year's calls with 139 percent.

For more information on VIP Communications, including customer registration information, and details on the 2012 Valentine's Day Holiday Calling Report, please visit www.JoinVIP.com. Quote promo code "LOVE10" and receive $10 of free calling credit when you join VIP with $10 or more.

About VIP Communications

Ashburn, VA based VIP Communications Inc. is a leading provider of international calling services and solutions, providing customers with best-in-class customer service, excellent connections and highly competitive pricing to every country in the world. The company has established itself as the standard for reliability and service in the international calling industry, having grown its customer base by an average of 40% per year, maintaining industry-leading customer retention rates and expanding its service portfolio to include Business and Mobile Services. For more information please visit www.JoinVIP.com.

Media Contact:
Matt Rizzetta
North 6th Agency   
212-334-9753
mrizzetta@n6a.com

 

SOURCE VIP Communications, Inc.

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