The face of travel is changing, with new research showing that Central American countries like Costa Rica and Argentina are becoming more popular with UK travellers.

Credit card provider MBNA analysed more than four million transactions from UK customers around the world to build up a picture of how travel habits are changing, with
Central America seeing the highest growth in transactions from travellers since 2014.

Spend analysed included accommodation, restaurants, bars and retail outlets.

Costa Rica, a country known for its stunning beaches, lush jungle and awe-inspiring volcanic landscape, saw the highest growth in spend from UK nationals by 136.12 per cent while the southern Argentina has grown by 66.87 per cent.

The British also seem to have been won over by Cape Verde, with a spend increase by 83.14 per cent while Montenegro grew by 73.65 per cent and the Baltic state of Latvia shot up by 48.91 per cent over a two year period.

MBNA also analysed smaller markets with typically lower volume transactions who have seen exponential growth since 2014.

The Polynesian island of Samoa with its serene, natural beauty saw a transaction increase from UK travellers of 1,744 per cent.

Myanmar has also seen considerable interest with a 241.64 per cent increase in spend and Nicaragua in Central America grew by 177.11 per cent.

The countries seeing the biggest decreases in interest were Tunisia, with -79.6 per cent spend from UK travellers and Egypt with -71.61 per cent.

Gibraltar also saw a fall of -40.02 per cent while the Caribbean twin island of Trinidad and Tobago lost out by -39.32 per cent.