Telegraph Travel Awards - winners revealed

December 2nd, 2007

This year’s winners of the Telegraph Travel Awards have just been unveiled.

New Zealand beats the Maldives and Australia to win Favourite Destination Worldwide, whilst Sydney - followed by Cape Town and Vancouver - gets the nod as the Favourite City Worldwide. Italy is, as it was ten years ago, winner of the favourite European Country award, ahead of Greece and Switzerland, whilst York - beating Edinburgh and Bath - tops the list for Favourite UK City.

You can browse the full list via the link above but just as interesting is the commentary provided by Nigel Starmer-Smith in which he unpacks the results and makes comparison with the first awards of ten years agoshowing how, in these awards at least, the US has fallen off the map despite the weak dollar and largely due to the increased security measures that make entering the country so much more of a struggle. France has also fallen from favour as one of the favourite countries, as has Paris as one of the favourite cities, though it’s ski resorts have found favour again, ousting the previously more popular North American destinations.

Of course ten years ago, the Internet was just a babe in arms and travel agents would just not have been concerned about the prospect of customers independently booking holidays, flights, hotels and so on online rather than relying on the packaged holidays they were being offered in the high street. It’s a different story now of course - and in this tenth year the winners of best travel websites are tripadvisor.co.uk followed by dealchecker.co.uk and kayak.co.uk.

Whether it’s comparing offers, booking your flights or accommodation, reading a fellow traveller’s review of a city, hotel or restaurant, or arranging your travel money or travel insurance…the fact that you can research it and book it all online shows what a remarkable transformation has occurred in recent years. Who knows what else lies ahead? Maybe one day we really will be taking holidays like those in Total Recall where you can enjoy an imaginary holiday through memory implants. The upside - if you’ve never seen the film - is great holiday memories without the risk of poor weather or a bad hotel, and all without taking the time off work, and you can even choose to ‘travel’ as a romantic or adventure hero and take a holiday from yourself. As for the downside, well, if you have never seen the film, make sure you do!

Entry Filed under: holidays, travel