BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, JUNE 5TH 2014 (CUOPM) – Business Insider has listed St. Kitts and Nevis among the 50 top up and coming countries to watch in world tourism.
St. Kitts and Nevis is ranked #14 among the hottest tourist destinations. The only one other Caribbean nation in the 50 is St. Lucia, ranked at # 29.
According to Senior Editor, Jennifer Polland, the world Top travel destinations like Paris and New York get so many visitors each year that trips to these destinations can be disappointing experiences filled with crowded tourist sites, overpriced hotels, and bad restaurants.
She added that it makes sense that travelers are looking to other, lesser-known destinations for their next trip.
Polland, who oversees the travel and lists & rankings sections of Business Insider disclosed that Love Home Swap compiled the list of the top 50 up-and-coming countries to watch, based on data from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
“They compared growth figures for each country by looking at the annual growth per year figures for travel and tourism’s direct contribution to the country’s GDP between 2014 and 2024,” said Polland, a former editor for Frommer’s Travel Guides, where she wrote and edited travel, arts, and lifestyle content.
Jennifer, who has a master’s degree in arts journalism from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University indicated that the list was dominated by countries in Africa, with Namibia taking the number one spot. Sixteen other African countries made the list, including Zambia (No. 3), Angola (No. 4), and Cameroon (No. 16).
Several Asian countries also made the list, including China (No. 5), Burma (No. 7), Cambodia (No. 8), and Thailand (No. 9).
Although some of these destinations don’t necessarily have the infrastructure ready yet to support tourism, they are building up hotels, restaurants, and shops that cater to foreign visitors and promoting themselves as top tourist destinations.