Charlotte is No. 4 on list of 2015 cheap-o travel hot spots

The discount ticket-booker priceline.com announced  on Wednesday its "Top Travel Hot Spots for 2015."

Unlike many of the myriad "top 2015" lists, Priceline's is based on affordability -- specifically, the average per-market, per-day room rate in 2014.

The rankings:

1. Dallas ($86.31; a shot of Dallas is at the top of this post)

2. Salt Lake City ($88.24)

3. Orlando, Fla. (89.57)

4. Charlotte ($92.37)

5. Phoenix ($93.44)

6. Tampa, Fla. ($94.03)

7. Las Vegas ($96.27)

8. Atlanta ($96.99)

9. Louisville, Ky. ($101.69)

10. San Antonio ($102.69)

11. Houston ($103.72)

12. Orange County, Calif.  ($107.91)

13. Minneapolis ($106.69)

14. Denver ($109.20)

15. Portland, Ore. ( $109.30)

These are  major metropolitan areas that are de facto hubs for major conventions or -- like Charlotte, Salt Lake City and Louisville --  aspiring ones; they include Sunbelt and Snowbelt cities where tourism ebbs and flows at various times of the year.

As prices are market-driven, off-season discounts probably reduce the average costs of popular places like Orlando, San Antonio and Orange County -- all warm places stocked with major American theme parks.

Priceline's second "top 2015" list, also released Wednesday, is based on that site's advance hotel reservations at domestic and foreign destinations -- a better indicator of a city or area's tourist pull:

Domestic

1. Orlando

2. Las Vegas

3. New Orleans

4. Miami

5. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

6. New York City

7. Orange County

8. Boston

9. Atlanta

10. Oahu, Hawaii

Non-domestic

1. Puerto Rico

2. Cancun/Cozumel, Mexico

3. London

4. Rome

5. Costa Rica

6. Paris

7. Toronto

8. Los Cabos, Mexico

9. Sydney

10. Barcelona, Spain