GREECE AMONG MOST WELCOMING PLACES ON EARTH
Source: Booking.com
For the seventh annual edition of the awards, 759,845 properties in total across 219 countries and territories are being given an award, with the top countries receiving the most awards being Italy (106,513), Spain (46,646), France (45,286), Germany (36,042), United States (35,626), Croatia (34,027), United Kingdom (31,206), Russian Federation (26,729), Poland (26,572), and Brazil (24,477).
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.
It turns out that travelers really consider how welcoming a place is when it comes to selecting their next holiday destination. According to the website, this is especially relevant for the 73% of global travelers that say friendly and interesting locals are one of their top considerations when selecting a destination for their next trip.
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%) of the award-winning properties globally in 2018. In fact, while hotels come in as the second-awarded accommodation type, nearly three quarters (73%) 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. Also for a second consecutive year in 2018, four out of the five top-awarded accommodation types are alternative accommodation options: Apartments (269,649), Hotels (148,913), Guest houses (78,574), B&Bs (66,697), and Holiday Homes (56,303).
The ongoing appreciation and interest from travelers to experience a wide variety of unique stay experiences is also reflected in recent research by Booking.com with 21,000 travelers across 29 countries which highlights that more than a third of travelers (35%) would prefer to stay in a vacation rental (holiday home or apartment) over a hotel in 2019. In addition, almost a quarter (23%) said that they would consider listing their own home on a travel accommodation site over the coming year. With 43% of travelers also wanting to stay in an accommodation type they’ve never experienced before in 2019, the consumer demand in this segment remains strong.