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Life

25th Sep 2018

These are the ten fastest-growing holiday destinations in Europe

Rory Cashin

Check them out soon, so you can say “Oh, I went there before people even knew about it…”

While the major destinations in Europe continue to do well with tourists on holidays and mini-trips, everyone is looking for the next big hot spot to get to.

The bragging rights of hitting up a destination before everyone or anyone else is beyond monetary value and the latest reports show that some of the largest expanding resorts are all of your Eurovision favourites that end up with the best songs but still, for whatever reason, only come in 4th.

According to the report (via Bloomberg), this is the top ten:

10. Armenia – 18.65% year-on-year growth

9. Bosnia and Herzegovina — 18.66%

8. The Republic of Moldova — 19.6%

7. Azerbaijan — 20%

6. Macedonia — 23.5%

5. Iceland — 24.11%

4. Turkey — 24.14%

3. Israel — 24.6%

2. Georgia — 27.9%

And in the top spot… (drum roll please)… San Marino, with a 31.1% year-on-year growth, which they describe as follows:

“The medieval micro-state sits in northern Italy, on a cluster of mountain peaks that lead down to the Adriatic city of Rimini. (Driving there from Florence is a straight, three-hour, eastward journey.) In 2017, San Marino claimed more than two visitors for each of its 33,000 residents, notching 78,000 arrivals in total. It’s not a lot, but for a microstate that’s just 24 square miles, it’s nothing to sneeze at, either.

“Despite UNWTO figures, no company points to San Marino as a particularly burgeoning destination. Abercrombie & Kent, however, said it fields rare requests here, wrapping together visits to the three castles that are marvelously situated on Monte Titano. It’s especially popular with stamp and coin collectors, said Liam Dunch, the company’s product manager for Europe, since the local versions are rare and in high demand.

“Consider this an indicator of a slow-paced trip: here, you’ll probably spend your days—or, let’s be real, a day—looking at frescoes in the 15th century Church of San Francesco or surveying the landscape from San Marino’s funicular. Its main destination? The postal museum, of course.”