Document 1 Just popping over to Rio for the week end…
By Simon Mills Cash-rich/time-poor traveller are ignoring environmentalists’ requests to limit air travel to a minimun and, are indulging in ever more ambitious mini-breaks to wildly exotic locations. According to a survey by Halifax,these breaks will increase by more than a third this year, with the number of Brits travelling to destinations including Hong-Kong, New-York and Rio de Janeiro for just a few days rising from 3.7m in 2007 to 4.9m in 2008. All of them childless, hedonistic, no-sleep-‘til-Monday-morning City boys, I’m guessing. You see, the environment isn’t a paramount issue when you are chained to your desk for 14 hours a day, single and earning over £200K a year. What you want is a short, a sharp blast of hedonism/luxury/adventure, as far away as possible from the beery male weekenders of Prague and Barcelona. Steppes Travel is currently offering long-weekend breaks to Syria, Libya and Cuba as well a three-day gorillwatching adventure in Uganda. The outbound flight, once seen as a deterrent, is often central to the itinerary. Even in club class, long-haul flying used to be an un comfortable experience with badly engineered seating, lousy food and cheap wine. Nowadays, the spoiling starts when you get in the limousine and make your way to the up-market wireless (1) lounge for a few glasses of champagne. Then it’s on the plane, where a most comfortable and roomy seat awaits you. (1) Wireless: equipped with wifi Adapted from The Guardian, 11 March 2008

Document 2 Long-haul short breaks’ rising in popularity’
British people are showing an increasing willingness to travel to long-haul destinations for relatively short breaks, according to research. A survey by Halifax Travel Insurance found that more than 3.7m British people flew over 5.5bn miles for short breaks in the past year, taking a flight of at least seven hours for a holiday lasting less than a week. Attracted by the strength of the pound