The region of Epirus in northwestern Greece was voted the number two more hospitable in the world for 2023 according to the Booking.com platform.
According to Booking’s Traveler Review Awards 2023, the region of La Rioja in Spain occupies the top spot in welcoming tourists and travelers, followed by Upper Austria, County Down in Northern Ireland, Moores in Romania, Marlborough in New Zealand, Ninh Binh in Vietnam, Limon in Costa Rica, Newfoundland & Labrador in Canada and North Dakota in the US.
Epirus the rugged and mountainous region of Greece
Epirus lies between the Pindos mountain range and the Ionian Sea. Its untouched mountainous mass of Pindos with its great virgin forests, the Dragon Lakes (the mythical mountain lakes), and the untamed slopes provide a plethora of activities.
The rivers of Epirus offer other activities such as kayak, rafting, and canoeing. Arachtos especially is considered as one of the most beautiful and challenging rivers for kayaking, while Voidomatis runs through the impressive gorge of Vikos.
All of this co-exists in harmony with the archaeological sites, castles, monasteries, churches and traditional villages.
10 most welcoming cities in the world
Booking also had in a separate category the 10 most welcoming cities for this year. These are:
- Polignano a Mare, Italy
- Hualien, Taiwan
- San Sebastian, Spain
- Dresden, Germany
- Klaipeda, Lithuania
- York, UK
- Ushuaia, Argentina
- Porto De Galinhas, Brazil
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Gold Coast, Australia
The 2023 Traveler Review Awards further highlighted the accommodation and other travel service providers from 220 countries and destinations that garnered the best traveler reviews.
The awards were based on 240 million verified reviews on the Booking.com platform, 1.36 million accommodation partners, 230 car rental providers and 58 airport taxi providers.
In total, 1.36 million travel service providers received an award for their services, and for the sixth year in a row, apartments (629,421) are the most awarded type of accommodation worldwide, winning three times as many awards as holiday homes (177,795) and hotels (172,036).
It is the first time that the hotels are in third place of the awards.
Almost one in 10 awardees worldwide received the ‘Travel Sustainable’ label for their efforts to operate more sustainably. Among all types of accommodation, hotels collected the largest share of accommodation with the sustainability label (15%).
In particular, Italy was in first place among countries with the most accommodation awards (170,638), followed by Spain (108,217), France (103,365), Germany (76,479), Croatia (64,206), Poland (60,721), United Kingdom (60,697), eighth Greece (54,473), Brazil (53,658) and USA (46,839).
In terms of the countries with the most awards for apartments, houses and other unique accommodations, Italy was again first, followed by Spain, France, Germany and Croatia.
At the level of transport service providers, Spain collected the most awards (23), followed by Greece (21), France, Italy and Portugal.
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