Pound's strength 'affects holiday choices'

People from the US are being put off visiting London for holidays because of the strength of the pound, new research suggests.

The aviation website cheapflights.com analysed which destinations were popular for US passengers in June and July this year.

It found that London was ranked 7th in June for all US searches, but added that the UK's capital dropped to 15th in July as a result of the dollar's continued weakness.

"London is a perennial favourite destination for US citizens, however the unfavourable exchange rate has made the UK an expensive choice as the current comparative rankings clearly show," explained Chris Cuddy, Cheapflights' group managing director.

However, Francesca Ecsery, general manager of cheapflights.co.uk, added that the strong pound also meant that people from the UK were increasingly opting for transatlantic vacations.

She explained: "It is therefore not surprising that the dollar's weakness has caused a 38 per cent surge in traffic searching for deals to [New York] compared to July 2006.

"Similarly the pound's relative strength against the euro has seen interest by price sensitive Brits for flights to Alicante, Malaga and Tenerife up from a year ago by between 50 per cent and 60 per cent."

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