The article's author, Oliver Smith, says Croatia's ranking is a result of an analysis of queries made on the website teflSearch between July 2015 and July 2016 from more than 80 countries in 52 languages, which produced a series of maps that reveal the holiday wish lists of various nationalities.
"Croatia featured in 2.71 per cent of travel-related searches worldwide and was followed by a clutch of other beach favourites: Greece (2.54 per cent), Turkey, Thailand (both 2.47 per cent), Spain (1.99 per cent), Italy (1.9 per cent), Cuba (1.85 per cent), Portugal (1.66 per cent) and Malta (1.65 per cent).
The US completed the top 10, while the most visited country in the world – France – didn't make the cut," says Smith.
The top ten countries (not including the USA) are countries with hot summers, fantastic beaches and other good conditions for a holiday, one of the more important ones being good value for money, says Smith.
Data on teflSearch also reveal the holiday wishes of different nationalities, including Croatians, who opt for the Maldives as the most favourite holiday destination, followed by Thailand and Malta. Among the top ten holiday destinations for Croatians are also Cuba, Greece, Tunisia, Montenegro, Turkey, Morocco and Mauritius.
One of the most important goals of Croatian tourism officials, defined in the national tourism strategy for the period until 2020, is to make Croatia, by that year, one of the world's 20 most desirable destinations. If current forecasts continue to become a reality and good results continue to be recorded and trends from this and many other surveys continue to be reported, that goal is likely to be achieved.