Currency exchange rates in the countries belonging to the Eurozone are prompting international travellers to looks elsewhere this summer. According to travel agencies such as Travelocity and American Express, booking for Euro-zone countries, including popular destinations such as Spain, France and Italy, are down 15%, while those for Eastern European countries that do not use the euro are up 16%.
While international travel continues to increase at a steady rate, in 2008 travellers are proving to be more flexible when choosing their destination, travel dates and length of stay. In addition, American travellers are looking for destinations where they have greater spending power. For this reason, there has been a significant growth in summer bookings for China, Russia (above all Moscow and St. Petersburg), South America, Mexico and Hong Kong.
