Travellers 'looking further afield than ever'

Modern holidaymakers are becoming increasingly ambitious and are set to jet off to more distant and disparate locations than ever before in 2008, according to lastminute.com.

A spokesperson for the company said that less mainstream, more exotic destinations such as Malaysia are expected to be in demand in 2008, as well as traditionally popular locations such as America.

"People are looking at going further away than ever before and we are predicting destinations such as Malaysia and the Maldives, but also the States," she said.

One of the major factors that is set to encourage travel to destinations like Florida, New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Boston next year is the current weakness of the dollar on the currency exchange market.

Elsewhere, Gambia in north-western Africa is set to attract visitors in 2008, along with other nations in the continent.

"We are expecting Egypt and Italy to carry on doing very well and summer and winter mountain destinations such as Switzerland and Austria should also perform well," the lastminute.com spokesperson added.