Telegraph Travel Awards for 2008 announced

Readers of the Telegraph have voted New Zealand, Cape Town, Italy and York as their favourite destinations in this year’s travel awards.

Regardless of the term used to describe the economy – credit crunch, economic downturn or recession – the taste for travel has not been diminished and frugality in travel has not yet taken hold, according to the feedback from Telegraph readers.

Over 25,000 readers were polled in Britain’s largest annual survey on travel habits, with 92 per cent maintaining that the financial crisis will not have any impact on their travel destination. Ninety-six per cent said that they refused to downgrade accommodation because of the credit crunch.

Favourite global destinations chosen for this year were New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Canada, and readers’ favourite cities included Cape Town, San Francisco, Sydney and Vancouver.

Airline favourites included long-haul specialists Singapore Airlines, Virgin, Emirates and Qatar Airways.

For the third consecutive year of voting, readers chose New Zealand as their favourite holiday destination outside Europe. Some 240 years after the arrival of Captain Cook on the country’s shores, Britons are still raving about the rugged beauty of New Zealand, and visiting in record numbers.

www.telegraph.co.uk