Nobody wants to think ‘is this it?’ when arriving at a tourist attraction. But every traveller has experienced the disappointment of reality not living up to expectations at some point.
With this in mind, Stasher, the luggage storage network, has ranked 99 global tourist attractions to find out what’s worth visiting and what might be worth skipping.
The data analysts collected the latest city and country-level data available for key categories* including TripAdvisor and Google reviews, quality of local accommodation, distance from the nearest international airport, tourist safety and TikTok popularity to give each attraction an overall score out of ten.
The study crowns the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest the world’s number one tourist attraction, scoring an impressive 7.34/10. The large neo-Gothic building overlooks the River Danube and is home to both the National Assembly of Hungary and a must-visit attraction in the city.
Tourists agree too, with the experience boasting 93.4% ‘Very Good’ and ‘Excellent’ reviews on TripAdvisor and a high average Google Review score of 4.8/5. The quality of local accommodation for travellers is also positive, with an average rating of 8.6/10 on Booking.com and videos featuring the building have been viewed on TikTok 887.1m times and counting.
In second place is France’s iconic Disneyland Paris, scoring 7.17/10 in the study. The 5,510-acre resort recently celebrated its 30th anniversary and welcomed over 9.7 million visitors before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.
Disneyland Paris is the most popular attraction on TikTok, with tagged posts being viewed a staggering 7.9 billion times. The local accommodation is also high quality – an average rating of 8.6/10 – and visitor reviews are largely positive. While the resort gets a good 4.5/5-star average on Google Reviews, TripAdvisor reviews are less positive, with 58.2% of visitors rating their experience as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’.
The geo-thermal Blue Lagoon in Iceland is ranked the third-best tourist attraction in the world, with an overall score of 7.15/10. Located in an awe-inspiring volcanic landscape, tourists flock to the site to see and swim in the silica-rich blue water which is thought to have healing and rejuvenating powers.
The Blue Lagoon is a favourite among TikTokers, with videos being viewed over 317.5 million times. Iceland is also considered to be one of the safest countries for tourists to visit, with a Global Peace Index score of 1.1/5 – the lower the score the safer a place is.
The quality of local accommodation is among the highest in the study (average rating of 9.2/10) and visitor reviews are complimentary, with 80% of TripAdvisor reviews either ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’ and an average score of 4.6/5 on Google Reviews.
Making up the rest of the top five is Plaza de España in Seville, Spain (7.13/10) and Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia (7.04/10).
Plaza de España, a previous winner of Stasher’s top tourist attraction prize, is an architectural marvel formed in a half-circle with tiled alcoves. It houses central government offices, as well as welcoming millions of visitors each year.
Angkor Wat, is the world’s largest religious monument, spanning 402 acres. The grand Buddhist temple features on the Cambodian national flag and was constructed using five million tons of sandstone – all carried by hand to the site.
At the bottom of the study’s rankings in 99th position is the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, scoring just 3.24/10. This is the second time the attraction has found itself in last place in Stasher’s global tourist attraction rankings.
The world-renowned attraction on Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Steet honours the stars of the entertainment industry past and present. But despite being technically free to visit, the attraction has the lowest average Google Review score (4/5) and just 19.5% of TripAdvisor Reviews are ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’. Many tourist reviews describe the experience as “dirty”, “feeling like they’re in a tourist trap”, “unsafe” and “overcrowded”.
The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey is thought to be one of the world’s oldest malls but fails to impress modern visitors, coming in second-to-last-place in the study (3.48/10). Tourists don’t rate their visits highly either – 4.1/5 is the average Google Review rating and just 41.2% of TripAdvisor reviews are ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’.
The iconic Taj Mahal in Agra, India also finds itself in the bottom five, scoring 3.83/10. The marble palace that is also a UNESCO World Heritage site is let down by its local accommodation ratings (7.1/10), being over 200 km from the nearest international airport and tourist safety score (2.6/5).
Jacob Wedderburn-Day, Co-Founder of Stasher commented on the study’s findings:
“The diversity of attractions in the top ten shows historical sites, natural wonders, religious temples, and amusement parks all make for great tourist destinations.
“While reviews are a good indicator of whether an attraction is worth visiting or not, there are many other factors that can influence tourists’ experiences which our study has taken into account.
“We hope our research encourages individuals to combine visiting popular destinations with places that aren’t being so regularly showcased to create their own unique experiences.”
To see the full data for each tourist attraction please visit Stasher’s Best Tourist Attractions Around the World study page. https://blog.stasher.com/stasher-reveals-the-worlds-best-worst-tourist-attractions/
