The members of U2 have been spotted in and around Fez, Morocco, sparking speculation they are in the country to record their next album.

It’s not the first time the Irish supergroup have turned to Morocco for inspiration, the video for the single “Mysterious Ways” was filmed in Fez by Moroccan film-maker Stephane Sednaoui.

Although nothing has been confirmed by the bands representatives, it has been stated that they are in the process of working on a new album (with long-time collaborators Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno) and that U2 have set up a recording studio in Fez.

If the group are not recording their album in Morocco as believed, it almost certain they were in Fez to attend the Annual World Sacred Music Festival.

Morocco has recently become one of the most popular winter sun holiday destinations for UK holidaymakers, following in the footsteps of other popular north African countries, Tunisia and Egypt.

As well as offering an exotic experience, hotels in Morocco are relatively cheap and flights to Morocco have become more readily available in the last five years.

A new report claims that the amount of money being spent on holidays by British travellers will continue to rise over the next five years.

The report entitled “The UK Tour Operators Market Development” by Market and Business Development, a research company, predicts a rise of 15 per cent on holiday expenditure.

Holiday spending will exceed 28 million pounds by 2012.

The main growth area is set to be in custom holiday bookings, where travellers create their own accommodation and flight bundles, this type of holiday planning is mostly done on the internet.

In comparison, the spending on package holidays looks set to rise by only 3 per cent,

Despite their predictions for this large rise in holiday spending, Market and Business Development warn that the spending increases are relatively low compared to the highs of the last four years.

This period has seen a boom in internet travel bookings, coinciding with the proliferation of low cost flights and competitive price drops in accommodation in some of Europe’s most popular family holiday destinations.

The Office for National Statistics recently revealed that the number of UK residents travelling overseas rose by 1 per cent in the twelve months preceding July 2007.

The cheap flights on offer from budget airlines are boosting overall worldwide air travel.

The continues rise of budget air travel across Europe is playing a large part in the increase I the number of flights booked across the world, according to statistics revealed by OAG, a UK-based flight information company.

Cheap flights from budget airlines account for 22 per cent of air travel across Europe, this is up 4 per cent on last year.

When looking at the number of passenger seats, no frills flights companies accounted for 30 per cent of air travel across Europe.

Heathrow to Amsterdam is the busiest international route in Europe, as well as being a popular holiday and business destination in its own right, Amsterdam is an important hub for worldwide air travel with connections to airports across the world.

In September 2007 alone budget airlines are offering 133,000 flights and 21.8 million seats for travellers across Europe.

The busiest low cost airline route in the world is currently Mumbai to Delhi.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s have announced plans for a new luxury hotel in Milan, Italy’s fashion capital.

The luxury hotel will be created by the re-development of three elegant 19th Century townhouses on the Via Monte di Pieta, one of Milan’s most prestigious addresses.

The design of the hotel will reflect Mandarin’s oriental beginnings and feature sleek, modern design.

Other features of the hotel will include;-
The largest guest rooms in the city
Comprehensive spa facilities offering a holistic approach to relaxation, including private treatment rooms and a fitness centre
Restaurants and cocktail bars
A 100-seat ballroom
Meeting rooms
An outdoor courtyard
In-room entertainment technology

The hotel will be located just a short walk from Milan’s tourist and shopping attractions and will owned and developed by the Statui Group, one of Italy major real estate companies.

We are excited at the prospect of creating such a luxurious hotel in one of Milan’s pre-eminent locations.’ said Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s Chief Executive, Edouard Ettedgui.

The international hotel group, Hilton has announced its latest move into Poland with the development of a hotel resort in the city of Rzeszow in south-east Poland.

The complex will be part of the Millennium Hall retail centre, comprising retail, entertainment and business facilities.

The Hilton Garden Inn is the debut for the Hilton Group’s award-winning mid-priced hotel brad in Poland and is scheduled to open by the end of 2008.
The Hotel group opened its first Polish hotel in Warsaw earlier in 2007 and the venture has proved to be a great success.

Rzeszow is approximately 150 kilometres from the hugely popular city, Krakow, which has become one of the most thriving citybreak destinations in Europe.

Rzeszow has excellent air and rail links with eastern and western Europe.

A spokesperson for Hilton said: “Following the successful introduction of our first Hilton hotel in Warsaw earlier this year, it has become clear that there is significant demand in the Polish market for quality, affordable accommodation in many key cities.”

Other Hilton Garden Inn hotels can be found in Florence, Rome Airport and Stuttgart.

Cuba will receive more than 2007 holidaymakers during 2007, for the fourth year running.

The country has been running a variety of tourist initiatives since 2000 in a bid to increase the number of people taking holidays in Cuba, the initiatives have paid off with the steady rise in the numbers of holidays in Cuba being taken.

Trujillo is one of the country’s most popular destinations, along with the capital, Havana. Caribbean cruises also use Cuba as a stopping point in their itineraries.

At last year’s Tourism International Fair, held in Havana, it was announced that 3.8 million pounds would be invested in the Cuban tourism industry. This money will be spent on modernising facilities and tourist centres, as well as marketing the Cuba as a holiday destination.

Germany and Spain, along with the UK are the European countries that send the most foreign visitors to Cuba.

For the first time, Italy has been voted ahead of Spain as the UK’s most popular holiday destination, a new survey has revealed.

The poll of 2,000 holidaymakers was conducted by Saga Holidays and found that 1 in 7 people chose Italy as their favourite destination for summer holidays.

Spain was the second placed country in the poll, closely followed by France.

Part of the aim of the poll was to assess whether there were differences in holiday preferences among different age groups. This perception was dispelled as both the over 55 and 25 - 44 age groups named Italy as their favourite holiday destination.

Italy has been a favourite destination for British travellers right from the beginnings of the travel industry back in the 1700s.

Fine foods and wine, beautiful scenery and cities packed to the brim with history and culture, Italy is even more accessible than ever before, due to the proliferation of cheap flights to Rome, Florence and other Italian cities.

Qantas are to offering passengers the option to offset their flights.

The Australian airline has been granted certification from the Australian government’s Greenhouse Friendly Initiative, encouraging carbon neutral domestic and international flights.

Qantas launched the new initiative which will cover 950 flighrs carrying more than 100,000 passengers on 19 September. It is claimed that 40,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions will be saved.

Malcolm Turnbull, Australian minister for the envionment said: “As a result of this action, Australia is now the only country in the world where all of our airlines offer customers the option of flying carbon-neutral.”

Workers have been busy during the summer getting the Swiss ski resort Zermatt ready for the winter 2007-8 ski season, developing new ski lifts, trails and snowmaking equipment.

The old Breitboden double chairlift is being replaced with a new chairlift with heated seats. This will have a capacity of 2,000 people every hour.

In a addition, a second chair lift is being added to the Stockhorn region.

An intermediate level ski run has been built between Hohtälli and Kellensee. This run will greatly improve accessibility to the Gornergrat and Matterhorn glacier paradise.

A new restaurant is being constructed at the Klein Matterhorn tramway and the summit station will include a hostel for mountaineers.

“Even in terms of its infrastructure and architecture, the Matterhorn glacier paradise is set to do justice to its superlatives and its uniqueness,” says Zermatt Mountain Cableways chief, Christen Baumann. “It is intended to become yet another Swiss trademark that will complement the existing comprehensive offering.”

For full details about the developments at Zermatt, visit First Tracks Online

Perfect Choice, a Surrey-based travel agency that specialised in holidays in Turkey has collapsed.

The company has an ATOL license which means the 500 holidaymakers currently on holiday in Turkey through the company will be able to carry on with their holidays as normal.

A refund will be offered to all the 1,250 people who had bookings with Perfect Choice.

The number of people taking holidays in Turkey has continued to climb over recent years, there are now over £1.3 million people travelling to Turkey from Britain every year.

High street travel agents, such as Perfect Choice, have faced fierce competition from online travel agencies who are able to offer low prices and dynamic holiday packaging.

It is estimated that no-frills airlines take over 90 per cent of their bookings online.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority, which operates the ATOL scheme, over 11 million Britons will go away this year without an ATOL bond.

All holiday accommodation and flights purchased through Holidays-Direct are ATOL protected.

Eight new routes will be introduced next summer from Leeds Bradford Airport, including flights to Crete and Cyprus.

There will also be new regular flights to Jersey, Sardinia, Madrid, Hamburg, La Rochelle, and Avignon starting in May.

The airline has a target to fly 3.5 million passengers from Leeds Bradford Airport by 2010, one million more than the current total.

Also, flights to Lanzarote and Geneva operating all year round and there will be twice daily flights to Paris.

Airport managing director Ed Anderson said: “The addition of eight new routes for next summer, many of which have never been served before by scheduled services from Leeds Bradford, gives business and leisure travellers a superb choice of destinations from their local airport.

“It represents the largest number of new routes ever added to the airport’s portfolio in a single announcement.”

The number of Britons owning holiday homes abroad looks set to rise to record levels.

A study by Moneycorp, a foreign currency exchange company predicts a surge in purchases of overseas properties in the next six months.

They suggest that people are inspired by their summer holidays abroad, looking to buy their dream homes in sunny locations.

Between 2004 and 2006, the number of British people owning a second home overseas increased from 550,000 to 800,000.

The most popular locations for holiday homes are Spain, France and Florida, with Croatia and other countries in central and eastern Europe increasingly being explored.

A recent survey revealed that due to the high property prices in the UK, young people and first-time buyers regard by a home abroad the most realistic way of getting on the property ladder.

Hotel management company, the PREM Group has announced a multi million Euro investment to buy and renovate hotels across Europe.

The group, owned by property developer Paddy Kelly has spent 65 million Euros on nine hotels in different cities in France and Belgium.

These hotels are in Hasselt, Mechelen, Antwerp, Ghent, Ostend and Calais and and are currently branded in as Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza.

These actions make PREM the second largest hotel operator in Belgium.

Last year PREM Group announced a €100 million European expansion programme and acquired four hotels, the Golden Tulip Hotel, the Tulip Inn, the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Antwerp and the Bedford Hotel in Liege at a cost of €48 million.

Prague has entered the race to host the 2016 summer Olympics.

The capital of the Czech Republic will compete against candidate cities from the United States, Japan and Brazil.

The mayor of Prague, Pavel Bern, and the Czech Olympic Committee chairman, Milan Jirasek, officially launched the bid with a new official logo at a ceremony attended by athletes.

Jirasek said: It’s a truly historic moment. We’re at the beginning of a long journey and we are ready to persevere.”

Roman Sebrle, the current world and Olympic Decathlon champion said: “All sports fans would be delighted if the Olympics were staged in Prague.”

Prague faces an uphill battle to host the Olympics, due to London already being selected to host the 2012 games. It would be unexpected for the IOC to choose two European countries in a row.

Prague has become one of the most popular citybreak destinations in recent years, boosting the Czech economy

Tourism Australia has launched a provocative new campaign to boost the popularity of holidays in Australia.

The message of the new adverts is “Where the bloody hell are you?”, emphasising aspects of Australia that people might not be familiar with.

The adverts will be broadcast in cinemas and online, as well as appearing in print magazines and newsletters.

Tourism Australia marketing manager Tim Jones said: “The campaign is targeted to increase intention to travel to Australia. September is one of the key months for the UK holidaymaker making long-haul travel plans.”

More on this story at Travel Weekly

We’ve all experienced it. The aeroplane circles to land and there’s grey clouds of fog and drizzle, it’s immediately clear that the blue skies we’ve left behind are very far away.

A survey by Birmingham International Airport has confirmed what many of us believed, two-thirds of us experience “the blues when we return from holiday.

In the most extreme cases (reported by a third of those surveyed) people feel they cannot face returning to work and change their jobs as a result of their holiday.

Over half of us say it is the stress-free atmosphere of our holidays that we miss most, followed by the weather and the food.

Over a third of people say they book a holiday with two weeks of returning home from their last holiday.

Birmingham International Airport has grown to be one of the UK’s major airports, with regular flights to popular holiday destinations around the world, including;-

The Balearic Islands
Bulgaria
The Canary Islands
Corsica
Croatia
Cyprus
Egypt & The Red Sea
Greece
Italy
Madeira
Malta
Portugal
Sardinia
Slovenia
Spain
Tunisia
Turkey
USA