A MASS exodus from East Lancashire on New Year's Eve 1999 has been predicted as hordes of people scramble to see in the millennium in style.

Travel agents have reported a healthy interest in advance bookings to secure holidays as far afield as Orlando, the Canary Islands, New York, Australia and New Zealand.

But the cost of spending the big event away from home is likely to be high with prices for many trips almost doubling.

Burnley-based Brunlea Travel has organised a guided tour of the Far East for customers.

Partner Alan Armstrong said: "We only started taking advance bookings two months ago and already a lot of people have signed up.

"The Canaries are popular because of the weather and the long season.

"I am leading the trip to the Far East and we will be staying in a beach resort on New Year's Eve."

Travel Lines, in Ainsworth Street, Blackburn, has also had a lot of inquires about millennium breaks.

"It is still early days yet as the brochures haven't arrived. We have a long list of people who want details as soon as we get them," explained manager Shaun Walmsley. "We expect a lot of holidays will include special celebratory activities but that will be reflected in the price. The ones I have seen so far are more than double what they would normally be."

At Althams in Darwen, manager Steve Logan and his team have been busy taking advance registrations for both sun and city breaks.

Mr Logan added: "In Europe the popular destinations seem to be the Canaries and Benidorm. Florida is another big seller. New York is one of the most popular city breaks.

"Customers can actually book a holiday with Thomson but the prices haven't been confirmed yet. Other tour operators are also compiling brochures and we are expecting a big demand.

"Millennium cruises have been on sale for a while and the prices have doubled.

"There has also been a lot of interest in special packages put together by hotels in this country. Most of them are booked up already."

The Darwen branch of Co-op Travelcare says many of their customers are looking to fly to the other side of the world.

Manager Russell Fish added: "The New Year will break in Australia and New Zealand 12 hours before here. A lot of people have been making inquiries and we expect to be inundated when the flights become available towards the end of the year."

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