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New York, New York is the destination most Rockingham residents are jetting to, according to travel specialist Cristina Foster.

Holidaymakers from Rockingham also appear to be branching out and exploring other holiday options, leading to an increase in younger people taking cruises around Asia and Europe. Ms Foster said although some American cities like Los Angeles had always been popular with Eastern States travellers, West Australians were now heading to the US in droves.

“The States is the most popular destination and there is no set itinerary. They are going all over the States; New York, LA, places like that,” she said. “We’re finding a lot of people are going into LA, but also going and venturing further out, so Nashville and New Orleans. That (New Orleans) hasn’t been popular since Hurricane Katrina, but it’s getting very popular again.

“New York is huge — everyone wants to go there.”

Ms Foster said the culture of cruising being solely for older travellers had flipped and younger people had taken to the option wholeheartedly.

“Cruising is huge out of Europe, so the Med and America as well,” she said.

“Traditionally, cruising has been the sort of older activity.

You retire and you go on a cruise, but that’s not the case any more. I think it’s more the destination as well, so you can go to Vietnam and China.

So lots of people see it as a fun way to get to exciting places.”

A more recent trend has older travellers re-embracing the “Europe trip”, but instead of travelling by plane as they once would have, they are travelling by train on what Ms Foster described as a trip a younger, backpacking traveller would take. She is noticing changes in the way travellers plan their holidays.

“Places like Antarctica have crept up the popularity list as well,” she said.

“I think it’s a destination that people want to tick off their bucket list.”