World's first space hotel to open in 5 years

The world's first space hotel is to open for business in 2012, a Barcelona-based tourism company announced last week.

Package holidays run by the £3 billion Galactic Suite Project will include 18 weeks accommodation on a Caribbean island, where guests will receive psychological and physical training in preparation of their orbital trip.

They will then enjoy a three night stay on board the company's zero-gravity hotel, which will orbit the earth every 80 minutes from an altitude of 450 kilometres.

With a price tag of £2 million the trip isn't going to be for everyone, but company director Xavier Claramunt believes he has a potential market in the world's approximately 40,000 strong super-rich list.

"Whether they will want to spend money on going into space, we just don't know."

In April, Hungarian-born US citizen Charles Simonyi became the fifth civilian to travel into space, spending $25 million (£12.4 million) for the 13-day trip.

Holidaymakers on a more modest budget, however, will be relieved to hear that earth-based vacations are still widely available at affordable prices. A 2006 study by the UN World Tourism Organization found that France and Spain still top the list of most popular tourist destinations in (or out of) this world.