Top destinations and hotels worldwide revealed

British Airways, the London Eye and a Scottish golf resort are among the British award winners at this month's World Travel Awards.

Destinations, hotels and holiday-providers across the globe have been competing in the 2006 awards for categories such as World’s Leading Beach to the more obscure accolade of World’s Leading Airport Lounge.

Holidaymakers looking to find out where the top destinations, as nominated by travel agents, are for ecotourism, diving, the boutique hotel experience or just about anything else holiday related, then the awards provide a useful guide.

The UK's holidaymakers do not have to travel very far to get to the world's leading visitor attraction, which was awarded to the London Eye, or have to use a foreign airline for the best air travel experiences, with Virgin winning world's leading in-flight entertainment and BA taking the world's leading airline award.

And golf holiday enthusiasts cannot do better than head to Scotland for a stay and several rounds at the world's leading golfing resort, the Old Course Hotel Golf Resort & Spa, St Andrews, Scotland, which also hosts international tournaments including The Open Championship and the Dunhill Links.

For more information see www.oldcoursehotel.co.uk

However, holidaymakers will need to take a longhaul flight to get to the world's leading beach, the Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos islands, which also boasts the world's third largest coral reef system.

The islands are less than 600 miles from Miami in the USA and are popular with holidaymakers who are keen to go diving, play golf and see the island's wildlife as well as being popular as a romantic getaway. For more information see www.turksandcaicostourism.com

If the hotel matters just as much as the destination, then for the ultimate boutique hotel holidaymakers can stay at South Africa's The Saxon, winner of World's Leading Boutique Hotel award, or for the boutique resort experience go to Vila Joya in Portugal's Algarve.

Ecotourism areas were also awarded, with the luxury spa hotel El Santuario in the Valle de Bravo, Mexico taking the title of World's Leading Eco Resort, and Tobago's Main Ridge Rain Forest taking leading destination.

The rain forest is the world's oldest reserve, and offers holidaymakers a chance to experience the island's wildlife first-hand.

Fans of getting active on holiday should note that the Maldives won the award for World's Leading Dive Destination, and the Switzerland's St Moritz was awarded World's Leading Ski Destination.

For the full list of award winners see www.worldtravelawards.com XXX