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This is officially the world’s best tourist destination in 2022

From entire countries to city breaks, these destinations triumphed at this year’s World Travel Awards

Ed Cunningham
Written by
Ed Cunningham
News Editor, UK
Maldives
Photograph: Shutterstock
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The World Travel Awards are a bit like the Oscars of the travel industry – only they’re a bit less exclusive. Both travel industry pros and the general public get to vote for the world’s finest destinations, from cities to hotels, before the victors are crowned at a glamourous annual ceremony.

If you’re thinking that you might’ve seen quite a lot about the WTAs over the past few weeks, well, that’s because you may well have done. The WTAs have recently gone through the continents, revealing the best destinations in regions such as Europe (find out more here) and the Middle East (more here).

But this one’s the big cheese. This time the WTAs have revealed the best destinations in the entire world.

And top spot went to... the Maldives, which took home the title of the ‘World’s Leading Destination’. At a ceremony in Muscat, Oman, the island country also took the title of ‘World’s Leading Tourist Board’.

So where else did well at this year’s global WTAs? Well, Vietnam took home a whopping five prizes, including ‘World’s Leading Heritage Destination’ (which went to the country as a whole), ‘World’s Leading City Break Destination’ (Hanoi), ‘World's Leading Nature Island Destination’ (Phu Quoc), ‘World's Leading Town Destination’ (Tam Đảo) and ‘World's Leading Regional Nature Destination’ (Moc Chau).

Jamaica also did really well in this year’s WTAs. The Caribbean nation won ‘World’s Leading Cruise Destination’, World’s Leading Family Destination’ and ‘World’s Leading Wedding Destination’. Not bad, eh?

You can check out all the winners of this year’s WTAs here – and find plenty of top travel inspo for the year ahead!

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