By David Hopps

This is now officially boom time in Sri Lanka. Even the good ol' New York Times has granted its approval. Travellers from the United States are not known as the most adventurous in the world -- in recent years with good reason you might say -- but the New York Times has named Sri Lanka as the no 1 destination in the world for 2010.

As Red Dot's growing sample of travellers includes about 0.000001 customers from the United States, we are pretty impressed with this new insight. Bring it on! We are ready to serve.

I admit I am as sceptical as I hope some others will be about Lists. Travel supplements are full of them these days. Ten or more years ago, you could read Paul Thereoux on a journey through the Pacific. Wonderful stuiff, even if you did sense that he made some of it up. Now you get a List: 20 Great Walks, 20 Hot B&Bs, 20 Best Beach Shacks, 20 ways to Avoid Writing Something Meaningful. 

The New York Times does not stop at 20, it does 31. But, hey, Sri Lanka is no 1. So it should be. Good on the New York Times. Bring it on.

(The New York Times, incidentally, is one of the world's great newspapers. I mention this for those who do not read newspapers anymore and believe that quite enough news can be gathered free of charge from the Internet. You will not be saying that in ten years if paid-for news collapses and it begins to dawn on you that you are being fed pap).

But I digress. More on The List. Mysore, which is also covered in Red Dot's burgeoning South India programme ( South India ) is at no 4, tucked in behind, ehm, the Patagonia Wine Country and Seoul. Red Dot has researched neither so can make no comment on tbeir hipness for 2010.

Other interesting candidates? Copenhagen at 5 - well, I suppose it deserves a consolation prize after the dismal climate summit. Antarctica is at 9, though still rumoured to be a little bit short of boutique hotels. Las Vegas is rated as the 17th best place to travel to in 2010, so if that is true even if I win the lottery I suppose I can only take 16 holidays.
Incidentally, thanks to that most assiduous reader, Karl Steinberg at the Galle Fort Hotel ( their website or, even better Galle Fort Hotel ) for altering us to this.

You can read the full New York Times list of the 31 Places Top Go in 2010 at Click Here. I don't hink it is compulsory to do all 31. We recommend that you start at no 1 and then reconsider your strategy.