Every vacation schedule includes a lot of stops at tourist spots. They might even be the main motivation for traveling. Tourists should therefore be aware of what to expect. When visiting a tourist attraction, nobody wants to wonder, “Is this it?”. But at some point, every traveler has felt let down by reality for falling short of expectations. World’s Greatest & Worst Tourist Attractions
Stasher’s data analysts assessed 99 tourist destinations from across the world to determine which are worthwhile visits and which should be better skipped.
For each attraction, they assigned a total score out of ten using the most recent city and national-level data accessible for important categories* like Google reviews, the standard of nearby lodging, the proximity to the closest airport, the safety of tourists, and TikTok popularity. World’s Greatest & Worst Tourist Attractions
The World’s Best Tourist Attractions
If you’re looking for inspiration for your next holiday, the following tourist attractions have averaged the highest scores across all data points. The study crowns the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest the world’s number one tourist attraction, scoring an impressive 7.34/10. The large neo-Gothic building overlooks the River Danube and is home to both the National Assembly of Hungary and a must-visit attraction in the city.
Tourists agree too, with the experience boasting a high average Google Review score of 4.8/5. The quality of local accommodation for travellers is also positive, with an average rating of 8.6/10 on Booking.com and videos featuring the building have been viewed on TikTok 887.1m times and counting.
Hungary also boasts a good tourist safety score of 1.4/5 – the lower the score the safer a place is. In second place is France’s iconic Disneyland Paris, scoring 7.17/10 in the study. The 5,510-acre resort recently celebrated its 30th anniversary and welcomed over 9.7 million visitors before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.
Disneyland Paris is the most popular attraction on TikTok, with tagged posts being viewed a staggering 7.9 billion times. The local accommodation is also high quality – an average rating of 8.6/10 – and visitor reviews are largely positive. The resort also gets a good 4.5/5-star average on Google Reviews.
The geothermal Blue Lagoon in Iceland is ranked the third-best tourist attraction in the world, with an overall score of 7.15/10. Located in an awe-inspiring volcanic landscape, tourists flock to the site to see and swim in the silica-rich blue water which is thought to have healing and rejuvenating powers.
The Blue Lagoon is a favourite among TikTokers, with videos being viewed over 317.5 million times. Iceland is also considered to be one of the safest countries for tourists to visit, with a Global Peace Index score of 1.1/5.
The quality of local accommodation is among the highest in the study (average rating of 9.2/10) and visitor reviews are complimentary, with an average score of 4.6/5 on Google Reviews. Making up the rest of the top five is Plaza de España in Seville, Spain (7.13/10) and Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia (7.04/10).
Plaza de España, a previous winner of Stasher’s top tourist attraction prize, is an architectural marvel formed in a half-circle with tiled alcoves. It houses central government offices, as well as welcoming millions of visitors each year.
Angkor Wat, is the world’s largest religious monument, spanning 402 acres. The grand Buddhist temple features on the Cambodian national flag and was constructed using five million tons of sandstone – all carried by hand to the site.
The World’s Worst Tourist Attractions
It is not the first time the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles has been named the world’s worst tourist attraction. Back in 2019, our first tourist attractions study came to the same conclusion based on the data analysed.
This year, the world-renowned attraction on Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Steet honours the stars of the entertainment industry past and present scores just 3.42/10.
The attraction received the lowest Google Reviews score (4/5). The USA’s poor global peace index (3.85) also dragged Hollywood Boulevard’s tourist hub through the mud, with tourist reviews describing their experiences as “dirty” and “unsafe”. The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey is one of the world’s oldest shopping malls, though visitors are left unimpressed with the attraction ranking the 2nd worst in the study. The Grand Bazaar scores poorly across the board, with a higher risk tourist safety score of 2.8/5 and a longer than average travel distance to the airport (45.7km).
However, when it comes to accessibility from an international airport, the Taj Mahal in India (3rd) is the furthest away, with tourists facing a travel distance of 219km.
Of the top ten worst tourist attractions in the study, seven of these are located within Asia. In addition to the Grand Bazaar and Hollywood Walk of Fame, Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Florida features in the bottom 10, and notably had the worst quality of local accommodation (6.6/10). Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour and Ocean Park place in position 6th and 7th, with poor scores across the board. Their notable differences can be found in TikTok engagement and quality of local accommodation, with Ocean Park scoring the better of the two in both categories.
Summary
In conclusion, the top attractions showcase a wide range of geographic and cultural variety, including sites from Europe, South America, Asia, and Australasia. Clearly, Europe dominates the top 5, showing the highest levels of TikTok participation and tourist safety.
Unsurprisingly (to some), the star-studded Hollywood Walk of Fame once again receives the study’s worst attraction honor for falling short of visitors’ expectations.
We hope that this study will be helpful to people who are planning their next international journey and inspire them to visit places they may not have previously thought about. World’s Greatest & Worst Tourist Attractions