Besides Greenwich, CT.
I'm talking about that trip everyone looks forward to every year, where they get to go on that trip that they really want to go on, that isn't somewhat dictated by work or family.
Back when we all thought this was going to end much sooner than it actually has (and for some reason continues to go on), we polled a few folks on their next destination after lockdowns end.
Out of the 136 legible and discernible answers (sorry, there was no way to account for all those crazy road trips and bucket lists 😛), we finally managed to dig into the data to see what the consensus was. In total, 83 countries were named. Ironically, the top four out of five places named are in Europe.
Ironically, also, no one said China.
Greenwich is nice. It's fine. It's not home.
The top destinations surveyed
For the most part, the places that came in at the top list somewhat surprised us and didn't surprise us at the same time.
Mostly, the appearance of Iceland has been unsurprising considering its relative isolation as an island nation, focus on the outdoors, lack of COVID-19 cases, recent popularity in the past decade and the fact the country was relatively proactive in lifting leisure tourism restrictions.
Gremi monastery in Kahkheti wine region. (Erica Ho / Map Happy)
Happily, we saw Georgia, a truly great, beautiful and completely unique little country, make the list, but were most floored to see Liechtenstein make an appearance.
Liechtenstein sits between Austria and Switzerland, in case you don't know.
It really seems to be a mix of countries known for the great outdoors, bucket-list places and locales that might be easier to travel to.
Here are the top eight destinations that garnered the most responses1:
- Georgia (4 responses)
- Iceland (4 responses)
- Liechtenstein (4 responses)
- Pakistan (4 responses)
- Spain (4 responses)
- Ethiopia (3 responses)
- Greenland (3 responses)
- Mexico (3 responses)
- United States (3 responses)
It was nice to see home base also receive some love.
Breaking it down further by continent
Socotra, Yemen. (Rod Waddington / Flickr)
Besides making us Google about which continent a third of the countries were situated on (yes, this did confirm to us that the Middle East is considered Asia, and North America is a lot bigger than we actually think it is), the results were what we mostly expected.
Europe took in the biggest draw at 33%, followed by Asia, Africa and North America. Oceania travel seems a bit restricted at the moment because of the New Zealand-Australia travel bubble; and there as even one lucky person who threw Antarctica into the lotto.
The surprise sleeper hit was Africa, though many folks we have talked to lately have mentioned more unusual destinations like Yemen and Somaliland of late.
| Continent | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Europe | 32.35% |
| Asia | 23.53% |
| Africa | 25.74% |
| North America | 12.50% |
| Oceania | 8.82% |
| South America | 3.68% |
| Antarctica | 0.74% |
