Greece Among Most Welcoming Places on Earth, Says Booking.com

Photo: Anthony Kitsopoulos

Greece has been included on the list of the 10 most welcoming places on earth, which was recently released by Booking.com, one of the world’s leading digital travel platforms, based on its 2018 Guest Review Awards.

In its seventh edition, the annual awards honors a total of 759,845 properties across 219 countries and territories.

Based on the share of properties receiving an award in 2018, for the first time ever Booking.com revealed the most welcoming places on earth according to customer reviews. With the highest percentages of total eligible properties winning awards, the most welcoming countries are Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, New Zealand, Taiwan, Romania, Hungary, Ireland, Serbia, and Greece.

Moreover, the most welcoming destinations are Goreme (Turkey), Slunj (Croatia), Eluanbi (Taiwan), Niagara on the Lake (Canada), Lake Tekapo (New Zealand), Bendigo (Australia), Newport (United States), Nozawa Onsen (Japan), Fernando de Noronha (Brazil) and El Chalten (Argentina).

The top countries that received the most 2018 Guest Review Awards were Italy (106,513), Spain (46,646), France (45,286), Germany (36,042), the United States (35,626), Croatia (34,027), the United Kingdom (31,206), the Russian Federation (26,729), Poland (26,572) and Brazil (24,477).

Photo Source: Booking.com

When it comes to the most welcoming property types globally, they are all from the alternative accommodation segment, which highlights the ongoing traveler appreciation for unique stay experiences: Riads, bed and breakfasts, farm stays, guest houses, ApartHotels and ryokans.

For the second year in a row, apartments are the top-awarded accommodation type, making up more than a third (36 percent) of the award-winning properties globally in 2018. In fact, while hotels come in as the second-awarded accommodation type, nearly three quarters (73 percent) of all the winning properties are homes, apartments and other unique places to stay, including everything from boats and igloos to homestays and country houses.