Unless you have spent the past year living on another planet, you’ll know that times are tough and money is tight. Happily, however, you can still get some winter sun without having to remortage your house.

We may be living in the worst economic crisis since the 1920s but that hasn’t stopped 4.25 million Brits from packing their bags and heading overseas this Christmas, with the peak travel days predicted to be today and tomorrow (Dec 22 and 23).

Next year sees the end of the 5,125 year old Mayan calendar in Mexico. Mayan legend says that when this happens, a new spiritual era will come.
Whether it comes or not one that Mexicans can be pretty sure of is that more British tourists will visit the country.
Why?

If past years (or recessions) have sucked up your travel budget, plan smart and get more bang for your buck in 2012

Lonely Planet, the travel guide publisher, lets us in on the world’s most romantic spots

Tonight Regent Street retailers, together with other retailers, restaurants and bars from major international cities, are embracing late night shopping, culinary experiences and entertainment.
Over 40 of the Regent Street retailers, bars and restaurants, are taking part in the Vogue Fashion’s Night Out and most of the shops will remain open until 11pm offering customers a [...]

The Mexican government and its tourist board are concerned about the amount of publicity being given to the drug and violence situation in the country. The image is one that they think is deterring tourists.

Orange Hotel’s VP of Marketing on Mexico, Kenya and the other side of Kowloon

The online travel agency, On the Beach, has conducted a survey amongst its website users (so they aren’t representative of the population as a whole or even just of online users) and has come up with some figures that should worry the British domestic travel industry. 96% of all responders said that they will spend their summer holidays abroad in 2011 and the two most frequently given reasons were the weather and that British hotels were too expensive. 70% said that a holiday in the UK was more expensive than going abroad.

CD-Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the world of travel

Whether you’re staycation-ing or vacationing, CD Traveller tells you what’s happening in the travel world

After all the stories about the impact of the euro and how it was reducing the number of us holidaying in the euro countries comes the news that it looks as though visits to the Canaries have bounced back by a staggering amount. In Lanzarote visits are up by a third over 2009 and holidays to Gran Canaria and Tenerife are up as well. Some are saying that numbers are nearly back to those pre-recession days. In July alone 450,554 of us just went to Tenerife

CD Traveller reader, Maryann Noronha, takes us on a tour of her five favourite destinations

CD Traveller tells you what’s hot in the travel world

Lawrence Bate, director of Tourism Ireland in Great Britain, spoke to CD Traveller about his love of South Korea, loyalty to Lonely Planet and, of course, the Emerald Isle

Whether you’re staycation-ing or vacationing, CD Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world

Turned off by chain hotels? Bored with ‘boutique’? Bettina Kowalewski, author of Bed in a tree – a gorgeous coffee table book published by DK Eyewitness Travel about the world’s craziest, quirkiest places to stay– suggests provides some inspiring alternatives from an actual bed in a tree in South Africa to a hanging eco-sphere in Canada, a giant suitcase in Germany and glass igloo in Finland!

Just before Christmas, we mentioned a few ideas that some of the experts thought would flourish in 2010. Today we have the thoughts of another four groups on what they think, ABTA, IPK, STA Travel and the Intercontinental Hotels chain. You might remember that Mintel thought it would be another year of the staycation with days out and weekend breaks becoming more prominent. And Euromonitor forecast the rise of pop up hotels which could be assembled (and taken down) quickly and which would offer inexpensive accommodation.
ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) says that Sri Lanka, Mexico and Thailand will see more tourists from the UK than they had in 2009.

Last year, (CD-Traveller 10 Nov 2009), I wrote about The Eurostars Hotels Travel Narrative Award. You might remember that this award means that the winning title gets distributed to every single hotel room that Eurostars Hotels have. The Barcelona based group has 53 hotels. (but not one in the UK/Ireland yet.) This means that in over 4200 rooms the winning book is there to be read by any guest.

This year the winner is Paco Nadal

Each year, Frommer’s (the people who produce travel guidebooks and magazines) poll their readers to see what the destinations for 2010 would be. Primarily American vote for this so it does tend to reflect where Americans holiday but this year it includes the Scilly Isles. It doesn’t really say why they were voted for but just gives a potted tourism pitch. I’m not complaining but sometimes when surveys like this take place it would be nice to know what appeals to readers.

There are lots of reasons to visit the Scillies; the weather, the sandy beaches, the subtropical plants that grow there and, lets face it, the fact that you don’t have to change currency or speak another language. Frommer’s only warning is to book well ahead because accommodation is limited particulary in May when the gig races take place.

So what are the other selections by Frommer?

The outbreak of a flu virus in Mexico has prompted some of the strangest media coverage. On the one hand, there have been the stories of returning holidaymakers suffering from flu like symptoms and the spread of the virus to other countries and on the other, plaintive stories of people who have had their holiday [...]