Travellers arriving in Britain from outside the European Union can now benefit from an increase in duty free shopping allowances.

Goods valued up to £300 can be brought into the country without any duty payable on the purchases - up from the previous limit of £145. The total value is is to rise even further to £340 from January 1.

For the first time restrictions on the amount of perfume and after-shave lotions are also scrapped - though the value of any fragrances must come within the £300 limit this month and the £340 maxium value next year.

The only travellers to be denied these higher limits are those arriving into the UK by private jet, yacht or other private pleasure boat. The total shopping allowance for these people is £210 now but will rise to £240 on January 1.

The amount of wine allowed is doubled from two to four litres and a new 16 litre allowance has been introduced for the first time for beer.

The one litre allowance for spirits and liqueurs over 22 per cent volume plus the two litre allowance for fortified winer(oport or sherry) sparkling wine or other liqueuers remains the same. In a new development however travellers can mix and match these allowances.

The same flexibility has also been introduced for the tobacco allowance so travellers can buy a mixture of cigarettes, cigars or hand-rolling tobacco provided the total falls within the limit - a maximum 200 cigarettes or 100 cigarillos or 50 cigars or 250g tobacco.

This is the first time these duty free shopping rates have been changed in 15 years.

It is also a victory for the UK even though it has taken four years for the Government to win agreement for the higher limits within the European Union. The move was first put forward by Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor in 2004.

The new rules are most likely to benefit visitors to the United States, the top destination for British travellers outside the European Union.

But increasingly many people are also taking holidays outside the eurozone where prices represent good value. Holiday companies report an increase in inquiries for trips to Egypt, South Africa, Morrocco, Tunisia, Dubai and Thailand.

Despite the weaker exchange rate for sterling against the US dollar there are still bargains for British visitors especially in electrical goods and designer clothes and accessories. Even though latest aviation figures show a 10 per cent decline in British people visiting North America, there is still a buoyant market for short breaks to New York for Christmas shopping.

Frances Tuke, spokesperson for the Association of British Travel Agents, said: “Travel habits and conmsumer spending have changed significantly over the opast 15 years. Whether the destination is New York or New Delhi, the purpose business or pleasure, these new allowances bring greater freedom for the public.

“The duty free goods laws now match the needs of the ever adventurous 21st century traveller - the announcement is great news for travellers and the industry.”

The countries in the top 10 destinations for UK travellers outside the continent are Turkey, Switzerland, Egypt, India, Tunisia, Canada, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and South Africa.

Anyone with purchases inside the new limits is entitled to walk through the green channel at Customs posts at airports. Anyone found to have shopping in excess of these limits is liable to pay duty on purchases.

Customs officers also randomly search passenger luggage. According to the latest data from HM Revenue & Customs the most unusual discoveries have been a goldfish carried in a handbag, a live bird, a gentleman’s home porn movie(that he featured in), live snakes) one had accidentally crawled into a case and luckily was asleep), a pot containing someone’s teeth that had been knocked out on holiday, scorpions and lizards, meat crawling with maggots, monkey brains to eat, and a lads’ chart detailing the number of sexual conquests during the holiday.

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