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Costa Rica has come top and Tunisia bottom as destinations most people would recommend for a holiday based on personal experience.
A survey of 23,000 holidaymakers in 26 countries saw the UK come joint 10th with Canada and Greece in a league table of 65 countries.
The three destinations with the lowest level of enthusiasm among those who had experienced the country within the past 12 months were China, Indonesia and Tunisia.
Europe is top of mind among consumers worldwide planning their next holiday, the survey revealed. Around 43% of the respondents said they were ‘seriously considering’ a European destination, while 27% were looking at Asia Pacific. A total of 11%, 6% and 4% were looking at North America, Latin America/Caribbean and Africa/Middle East respectively.
Almost two thirds (62%) of Europeans were planning holidays within their region, while 30% had not yet planned their next holiday. Of those living in Asia Pacific countries, 66% said their next main break would be within the same region while 23% planned to visit Europe.
The Global Tourism Monitor study also revealed strong intentions to choose a ‘staycation’. Within Europe, Hungary recorded the highest percentage of staycationers at 63%. In North America, more than half (51%) of US citizens said they were seriously planning a domestic holiday.
Respondents were allowed to name more than one factor that affected their destination decisions. Recommendations from friends scored highest globally at 33%. Previous experience of the destination scored 30% while booking websites or media coverage scored just 13% each.
Visitors were also influenced by travel agents (12%), advertising (12%) or travel providers such as airlines and hotel groups (8%).
The survey also looked at advertising awareness among holidaymakers. The US enjoyed the highest advertising recall at 14% of the 23,000 people surveyed. Thailand scored 12% advertising recall while 11% could recall adverts for French holidays. The countries most likely to have seen advertising featuring the UK were India, Brazil, Australia and Romania.
The Global Tourism Monitor survey asked holidaymakers to identify countries they had visited in the past 12 months and the likelihood of recommending the destination based on personal experience, using a scoring system that subtracts the proportion of detractors from promoters to produce a ‘net promoter score’.
Jon Young, associate director at BDRC Continental, which conducted the poll, said: “This study is one of the most broadly-based global assessments of recent tourism experiences and future intentions.
“It looks at destination appeal and the likelihood to recommend a country, based solely on personal experience in the last 12 months.
“It’s a credit to the UK that it has achieved a high joint 10th position in a league table of more than 70 countries, especially given the competition of countries with more favourable climates.
“Overseas visits rose to 32.8 million in 2013, up 5.6% on 2012 and the prominence of UK as a holiday destination is good news for our tourism sector and the overall economy.”
Top 10
1. Costa Rica
2. Austria
3. Israel
4. New Zealand
5. Italy
6. Japan
7. Croatia
8. USA
9. Norway
10. Canada
10. Greece
10. UK
Bottom 10
56. Bulgaria
57. Russia
58. Albania
59. Cambodia
60. India
61. Ukraine
62. Malaysia
63. China
64. Indonesia
65. Tunisia