Popularity surge for Agadir

The Moroccan resort of Agadir has had a surge in interest from travellers looking for a north-African package holiday.

Figures from the travel website lastminute.com show that Agadir, an ideal base from which to explore popular cities nearby and still have a beach holiday, has had a seven times more bookings compared to the same time last year.

Morocco's growing popularity also extended to Marrakech, which was the fastest growing destination for flights, up 300 per cent on last summer, and Tangier, fifth in lastminute.com’s flights-only destination chart, which experienced a 130 per cent increase in bookings.

John Bevan, of lastminute.com, commented: "At lastminute.com we expect this interest in Morocco to grow further. It has so much to offer UK travellers, with great value fares and value for money while you are there.

"Also it's only a flight time of 3.5 hours to Marrakech making it ideal for short breaks as well as longer trips."

Other new destinations experiencing growing demand from the British public include Florence in Italy and La Coruna in north-west Spain.

The website explained that La Coruna's increase in popularity was largely down to better value ticket prices compared to established destinations such as Barcelona and Malaga.

In terms of the future, lastminute.com singled out Bulgaria as the next big destination for the UK holidaymakers. The country was the third fastest growing flights-only destination this year.