THE beachside resort of Buzios in Brazil and the Lebanese capital of Beirut top the wish list for British travellers in 2011, claims research by the booking website Hotels.com.

Based on searches made on Hotels.com’s UK site in the first three weeks of December, South America is a huge draw for British travellers in 2011 with searches for Buzios soaring by 330 per cent against the same period in 2009, and accommodation in Cusco, Peru seeing a 191 per cent increase in hits.

The world’s leading hotel provider also saw a surge in interest in India’s southern state of Kerala with searches up 300 per cent, while confident Mexico Tourism Board predictions for a bumper 2011 are confirmed by the number of searches for Mayan Riviera hotels surging by 191 per cent.

As popular city break destinations, both Marrakech and Cape Town are still riding high on 2010 popularity, fuelled by the filming for Sex And The City in the Moroccan capital and the World Cup in South Africa. Searches for those destinations soared by 165 per cent and 161 per cent respectively.

A new and emerging city break is Beirut, with a 115 per cent increase in searches. The Lebanese capital is one to watch in 2011, thanks largely to an influx of boutique hotels and the launch of a second daily direct bmi flight ex-UK.

Alison Couper of Hotels.com says: “Our research reveals a more independent explorative streak from British travellers for 2011, with lesser known destinations clearly on the wish list of Hotels.com customers.

“A surge of interest in Mexico confirms predictions it could be a real hotspot next year, along with South America, India and Lebanon.

A World Cup factor could also still be at play with holidaymakers also looking at Cape Town in South Africa.

“Value is clearly a key concern: many widely searched destinations offer very competitive hotel rates.”

At Exodus, the adventure holiday specialist which is the UK’s largest operator of smallship Polar expeditions, they are anticipating huge demand for special charters to Spitsbergen, led by by Paul Goldstein, the award-winning photographer.

Exodus offers 12-day Spitsbergen Explorer packages departing on June 16 and June 26, to take advantage of 24-hour daylight in an area which is home to polar bears, walrus, arctic foxes and huge colonies of seabirds. Packages from £4.139 also include flights.

According to Thomson/First Choice, who form one of the big two operators in the travel market, 2011 is going to be a great year for all-inclusives because families get a good idea of how much they are likely to spend when they book.

It has boosted the range of all-inclusives available in Turkey, Egypt and Greece and also varied the length of holidays available, switching from standard seven and 14-night packages to offer many more three, four, nine, 10 and 11- night holidays.

In many cases, says the operator, holidaymakers book shorter packages because they fear 14-night stays could overrun tight family budgets.

At Cox & Kings, the expectation is that political changes will see more travellers booking holidays in places like Peru, Burma, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Brazil.

Its Golden Land of Burma package is a 13- day (10-night) group tour starting at £2,345 including flights, transfers, escorted excursions and daily half-board accommodation.

Sri Lanka has added a range of luxury boutique hotels, and a wider selection of flights with Jet Airways and Gulf Air both launching new services.

A nine-day (seven-night) Relax & Explore package at Jetwing Vil Uyana, a hotel built in its own nature reserve, starts at £1,595, including flights, private transfers and B&B accommodation.

At HomeAway Holiday-Rentals, spokeswoman Sarah Chambers confirms a switch in demand for self-catering holiday accommodation away from high prices within the Eurozone.

In 2010, she says, there was a strong shift in demand towards countries like Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Malta and Brazil, and all these destinations are set to flourish in 2011 too.

A stunning threebedroom villa sleeping seven in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains outside Marrakech, Morocco, starts at £1,750 per week. That’s great value for holidaymakers smart enough to bag cheap flights early on.

■ INFORMATION

Hotels.com (020-3027-8146); Exodus (0845-863-9601 and exodus.co.uk); Thomson (0871-231-4691 and thomson.co.uk); Cox & Kings (0844-264-0262 and coxandkings.co.uk; HomeAway.co.uk Five great value getaways According to Joel Brandon- Bravo, UK managing director of travel website Travelzoo, five destinations will provide terrific value in 2011. They include: Tallinn, capital of Estonia and Europe’s Capital of Culture 2011 Las Vegas, which opened another 3,000 hotel rooms in December Greece, with discounts of 40 per cent-plus from “early bird” Greek islands operators Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of Africa Ireland, thanks to lots of bargain flights offered by Ryanair and Aer Lingus.