Turkey and Egypt set to be 2010 hotspots

The Turkish and Egyptian tourist markets are set for further growth from British travellers in 2010, according to American Express.

The prediction followed a report by Amex, which noted that sales of Turkish and Egyptian currencies were up 26% and 80% year-on-year respectively.

The figures were revealed in Amex’s Currency Index, which measures the popularity of countries by tracking sales of currency.

The index also revealed that demand from the UK for the United Arab Emirates dirham has also risen year-on-year, along with other long-haul destinations such as Mexico, Thailand and the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

Amex Global Foreign Exchange Services director of trading and business development Terry Perrin said: “Currency sales in the third quarter of this year remain on par with previous years, suggesting that despite the tightening of purse strings up and down the country, Brits were just not prepared to forgo their annual summer holiday.

“Undoubtedly the much published no-show ‘barbeque summer’ also helped fuel the trend in last minute bookings and currency sales towards the end of the season,” he added.

In the Amex league table, the Euro remained the UK's most purchased currency, while the US dollar was second and the Turkish lire third.