The hottest destinations of the past decade
From Croatia to Iceland and beyond, these places generated lots of social-media buzz
With the end of another year (and decade), we’re looking back on the buzziest travel destinations.
Countries across the world — from Iceland to Croatia to Australia — kept tourists on their toes with exciting attractions and natural wonders. The debut of Instagram in October 2010, too, kept many of these destinations top of mind. If you didn’t take a picture of a mineral spring in Iceland, for instance, did you even go? (Yes, but no one would know it.)
But which ones stood out as the most talked-about? Here’s a look at the hottest destinations of the past decade and what’s made them so “hot” in the first place.
Croatia
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to any “Game of Thrones” fan that Croatia was a hit this past decade. The series, which premiered in 2011, transformed the already beautiful country into a must-see destination. Expedia flight data shows triple-digit increases for the country’s biggest tourist spots of Dubrovnik, Split and Zagreb since 2015.
But what about the post“Game of Thrones” world now that the show has wrapped after eight seasons?
“As the ‘Game of Thrones’ craze peters out, Dubrovnik’s time in the limelight may come to an end, but that’s not such a bad thing,” Jay Ternavan, founder and CEO of JayWay Travel tells USA Today. “The city’s mayor has already taken steps to reduce the number of cruise ship arrivals as they focus on quality overnight visitors.”
Thailand
Fifteen years after a devastating tsunami hit Southeast Asia, Thailand has recovered and made several lists of the decade’s top destinations thanks to its varied charms.
From capital Bangkok to remote resorts, tourists could go on any type of vacation they wanted in Thailand. Think beach time, ancient ruins, museums and markets.
Iceland
If you asked a group of people in the past five years where they’d been itching to travel, Iceland would definitely come up. And who could blame them? From the fjords to mineral springs to geysers, travellers have been flocking to there in droves.
“Seemingly overnight, everyone all of a sudden wanted to see — or just got back from seeing — the northern lights from a glass igloo,” Jacob Marek, founder of IntroverTravels, a company catering to inward adventurers, tells USA Today. However, recent tourism figures indicate interest in visiting the country may be starting to lose some steam.
Peru
Machu Picchu saw tourism double from approximately 700,000 in 2010 to more than 1.5 million in 2018, according to Peruvian tourism data. There’s already been more than one million this year, without three months of statistics still to be counted.
And there’s much more to see beyond Machu Picchu: Trujillo, Mancora and Chiclayo, for instance, are ideal surfing beaches and offer great seafood.
France
France ranked as No. 1 on Dollar Flight Club’s top 10 destinations for the past decade. The company aggregated flight data for more than one million people in more than 100 countries, as well as leverages first and third-party airfare data sources.
“With the Eiffel Tower, Côte d’Azur, the amazing French Alps or the numerous castles and cathedrals, France is a true magnet for worldwide tourism, all year long,” says Will Hatton, founder and CEO of the Broke Backpacker.
That said, the Paris tourism industry ended the decade on a down note. Notre Dame was empty on Christmas for the first time in over 200 years following April’s devastating fire. And a countrywide labour strike crippled transit in December.
England In terms of employment across all of the U.K., tourism has been the fastest-growing sector sine 2010, according to VisitBritain.org.
London specifically has been a hot destination on its own. The city includes an “unrivalled wealth of visitor attractions, historical monuments, worldclass entertainment, nightlife and more,” says Freddie Julius of Tourist England.
The country has been dealing with the potential impact of Brexit as well, and it remains to be seen what the ultimate fallout will be.
Vietnam
Thailand may have been popular earlier in the decade, but Marek says Vietnam shot up in popularity. “Southeast Asia tends to shift every decade or so,” he says. “In the aughts, Thailand was the up-and-coming destination of the decade; in the ‘teens, it was all about Vietnam.”
“With the tourism industry now accounting for nearly a 10th of the country’s GDP, the scramble is on to capture the expanding market,” Rory Linnane wrote for USA Today in 2016.
“Main streets are dotted with tourist information centres, double-decker buses and hostesses handing out English menus.”