Daily Mail: Sunny Beach in Bulgaria Sees off Marmaris and the Algarve to be Named the Best Value Tourist Hot Spot for Brits in 2019
The Bulgarian resort of Sunny Beach has been named as offering the best value for money break for UK holidaymakers for a second year running, an annual report has revealed, reported Daily Mail.co.uk
It was found to be the place where Brits will see their pounds stretch furthest in research which saw the Turkish resort of Marmaris in second place while the Algarve in Portugal is third.
However, the most expensive place for a holiday was found to be Mahe in the Seychelles.
The ranking was revealed in the Post Office Travel Money's yearly Worldwide Holiday Costs Barometer.
To compile the report, the Post Office compares the cost of eight everyday tourist items in 42 cities and resorts worldwide to see where the pound will stretch furthest.
The price of the basket of items, which are a meal for two, drinks, sunscreen and insect repellent in first placed Sunny Beach is just £36.03.
The well-documented volatility of the Turkish lira explains why Marmaris, Turkey's most popular resort, claimed second as prices have fallen 18.7 per cent since last year to £45.23.
Third place the Algarve, a past winner, has seen prices rise by 13.2 per cent to £50.11 while in fourth place is Cape Town, where prices are £50.23.
However, a price fall of two per cent to £54.12 has helped Spain's Costa del Sol to move up to fifth place in the table.
The rest of the top ten is made up of Tokyo (£55.55), Mombasa (£55.87), Prague (£56.88), Paphos (£65.17) and Bali (£69.49).
Overall, the report revealed that contrary to expectation that the seesawing value of sterling against major currencies would result in higher prices for UK visitors, the costs for eight tourist staples including meals and drinks has fallen in almost half of the 42 destinations surveyed – including six of 12 European ones.
Singapore (£120.66) and St Lucia (£80.09) head the list of 19 destinations where holiday costs have dropped in the past year.
Prices in the Chinatown area of Singapore fell by 21.5 per cent and in Montego Bay, Jamaica they went down by 19.6 per cent.
The cost of items in St Lucia's was far cheaper than in four other Caribbean islands (Antigua, Barbados, Jamaica and Tobago).
And while those falls are the result of cheaper local charges for meals and drinks, a sharp rise in the value of sterling against the Brazilian real explains why prices have plunged in Rio de Janeiro where the barometer basket totals £111.19, a fall of 19.5 per cent.
European destinations that also saw sizeable year-on-year price reductions were Malta (Sliema, 12th, £71.41 – down nine per cent), France (Nice, 20th, £91.86, down 13.7 per cent) and Greece (Corfu, 21st, £96.06, down 7.8 per cent).
Post Office Travel Money expert Andrew Brown said: 'It is good news that prices are down in many destinations this year, but it is still very important to be aware of the huge variation in costs we found across the 42 countries surveyed.
'For example, barometer costs in the six cheapest resorts and cities are less than half those in the 15 priciest destinations.
'That's why we advise holidaymakers to draw up a destination shortlist and do their homework by comparing the prices for meals, drinks and other tourist items before booking. Forearmed is forewarned.'
Sorrento in Italy emerged as the most expensive of 12 European destinations after registering a price rise of over 30 per cent.
At £119.03, its prices were over twice as high as those in Sunny Beach, Marmaris, the Algarve and the Costa del Sol.
However, value choices included the cities of Bratislava and Porto, where local prices are among the lowest in Europe.
The hotlist also includes Croatia and Iceland, whose currencies are among 10 showing the greatest sales growth over 10 years.
In the past decade Croatian kuna sales have risen 325 per cent, while those for the Icelandic krona have grown by 237 per cent.
Meanwhile, Post Office Travel Money added three new destinations – Abu Dhabi, India (Delhi) and the Seychelles (Mahé) – to the Worldwide Holiday Costs Barometer this year.
Delhi emerged as cheapest of the three at £104.29, while Abu Dhabi (£168.66) and Mahé (£182.89) were at least 60 per cent pricier.
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