Europe is the winner

With the credit crunch putting a strain on holidaymakers' purse strings and travellers increasingly concerned about the environment, European destinations will prove to be the real winners over the next 18 months.

Such is the opinion of Graham McKenzie, managing director of online resource TravelMole, who said that Britons may now start to look for carefully at long-haul destinations such as the Far East.

However, when it came to the US, he believed that holidaymakers would still get good value for their money when booking a trip there.

"[The US] may remain popular but I think European destinations will be the winners in all of this in the next 18 months," Mr McKenzie concluded.

Britons hoping to book a trip over the coming months may be pleased to hear that they could save money by going with budget airline Jet2.com, which offers cheap flights to Spain and other top European destinations.

A recent survey by travel search engine Kayak.co.uk revealed that 45 per cent of respondents are kicking aside their inner Scrooge to jet off somewhere warm this December.

Book cheap flights to Spain online from Jet2.com, the low cost airline.