Global Travelers Say Paris is the Most Popular European Destination

Travel company TripAdvisor has just released its top 10 European destinations for 2011, as selected by global travelers. Paris is the big winner, followed by Rome, London, Barcelona, Prague, Venice, St. Petersburg, Florence, Edinborough and Istanbul. The first four European destinations also made it into this years top global destinations for tourists from across the world.

A month earlier, TripAdvisor released the top 5 European destinations picked by US travelers, where London leads, followed by Paris, Rome, Barcelona and Amsterdam. The UK capital city, London, has also topped the global travelers’ most popular UK destinations list, followed by Ediborough, Bath, Cambridge and Oxoford.

“Tourism is vital to the UK economy so it’s encouraging to see London and Edinburgh both highly recognised as Europe’s best destinations,” said TripAdvisor spokeswoman Emma Boyle.” London’s performance is especially meaningful as so much time and effort has gone into preparing the city for the 2012 Olympics and hopefully it will sneak ahead of Paris and Rome before the Games start.”

While included in the top world destinations list of TripAdvisor, European destinations barely made it in the first half of the top, with the first three positions being taken by Cape Town, Sydney, and Machu Picchu, Peru. Paris is the only European destination in the Top 5 of world hot spots, which is completed by Rio de Janeiro. The second half of the top lists New York, Rome, London, Barcelona and Hong Kong.