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The top travel destinations during the Covid-19 era have now been revealed. The list, which was compiled by the UK-based market research company Euromonitor, is notably different from its previous iterations, as a mixture of both tough entry restrictions and strict travel requirements had a significant effect on several city's performances on the list – making for some shock omissions this time around.
Here's a closer look at the updated list for 2021, including the methodology behind how it was compiled, which cities have taken the top spots and how travelers can visit them in 2022.
Top Covid Era Destinations – What Travelers Should Know
Euromonitor's study into the top Covid-19 era destinations saw them judge destinations around the world according to six pillars that they highlighted. These were:
- Economic and business performance
- Tourism performance
- Tourism policy and attractiveness
- Tourism infrastructure
- Health and safety
- Sustainability
Once each city was assessed in each of the categories, an overall attractiveness score was generated, which allowed the company to rank the top destinations – with cities across Europe coming out on top.
Taking the top spot and being crowned the top Covid-era destination is Paris. The City of Lights had the highest ranking in terms of tourism performance and second highest in terms of tourism policy and infrastructure, but fared poorly when it came to health and safety. Vaccinated American and Canadian travelers can enter France without needing to take a test, whilst unvaccinated travelers will need a negative result. The country has also removed its vaccine passport requirements.
Dubai took second place in the list, falling from its first-place position back in 2020. The megacity has been open to travelers since June 2020 and ranked highest in terms of health and safety due to its high vaccination rates and stringent safety measures. Vaccinated travelers don't need to take a test to enter the UAE, though unvaccinated travelers will need to provide a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours of departure.
Amsterdam came in third, helped by its impressive sustainability, tourism policy, and economic and business performance scores, whilst Madrid – which ranked highest in sustainability and third overall for its tourism policy and attractiveness – was ranked the fourth most attractive destination for travelers. Rome, which was commended for its high tourism performance, tourism infrastructure, and tourism policy and attractiveness, came in fifth.
Fully vaccinated travelers can gain entry to the Netherlands without having to take a Covid-19 test, though entry if unvaccinated is a little more complicated – more information can be found here. Fully vaccinated travelers can visit Spain without testing, though unvaccinated travelers are currently unable to do so. Travelers can currently visit Italy providing that they can show either a Covid-19 vaccination certificate, an official certificate of recovery, or a negative test result.
Making up the rest of the top 10 were Berlin, New York, London, Munich, and Barcelona. There were also several notable absentees from the top 10 this year compared to previous years. Hong and Bangkok, which topped 2019's list, found themselves in 49th and 45th place respectively on the most recent list, whilst 2019's fifth-placed destination Singapore now languishes in 24th. This is largely due to their low tourism policy and performance scores, with these destinations still having strict entry requirements in place.
Eurovision's list does have some peculiar inclusions, as well as some blatant omissions. Tokyo was ranked in the number 15 spot, although it's been extremely cut-off for foreign tourists, and at times, even quite inaccessible to domestic ones. There is also no mention of any Mexican city in the entire Top 20, of which Mexico has certainly been the king of tourism throughout the pandemic.
Read More:
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This article originally appeared on TravelOffPath.com
Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Jonas E
Friday 15th of April 2022
How many drugs do you have to take until this list makes sense?
Kashlee Kucheran
Friday 15th of April 2022
Personally, I can't make it make sense. I looked over their 6 pillars of data used to determine the nations and it still seems very off.