Friendliest Travel Countries

CNN Article

Friendliest

1. Iceland 6.8
2. New Zealand 6.8
3. Morocco 6.7
4. Macedonia, FYR 6.7
5. Austria 6.7
6. Senegal 6.7
7. Portugal 6.6
8. Bosnia and Herzegovina 6.6
9. Ireland 6.6
10. Burkina Faso 6.6

Unfriendliest

1. Bolivia 4.1
2. Venezuela 4.5
3. Russian Federation 5.0
4. Kuwait 5.2
5. Latvia 5.2
6. Iran 5.2
7. Pakistan 5.3
8. Slovak Republic 5.5
9. Bulgaria 5.5
10. Mongolia 5.5

That's the results of "Attitude of population toward foreign visitors." -- would you agree? Reply to this

This list has a narrow western-centric view of the world. I've not been to Iran, but everyone I know who has visited ranks it as one of the friendliest in the world, so its ranking here is mystifying.

Any country where strangers invite me to their home, or for dinner (which they pay), or offer to show me around (for no charge), or offers me advice on the best things to see in the country is always going to rank highly with me, and this occurs in the less developed Middle East countries far more frequently than anywhere else. I have never been invited to a stranger's home anywhere in Europe, nor had a stranger offer me a meal, so I cannot understand why they Europe ranks so highly.

My personal list would be as follows with the top three well ahead of the rest:
1) Iraq
2) Syria
3) Yemen
4) Bangladesh
5) South Korea
6) India
7) Ethiopia
8) Vietnam
9) Turkey
10) Malaysia Reply to this

I saw the original Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013 from The World Economic Forum a few days ago and was tempted to post something on a forum about it, purely as a conversational piece. But felt it would be too academic dry and techincal, since this is basically a research methods type question, and this type of reductionist quantitative crap...mind my French. But it seems now the mass media have picked it up and added their own spin to it.

I've been to most countries on the "friendliest" and "unfriendliest" and to be honest many of those on the unfriendiest would probably make it onto the friendliest and vica versa. But then of course that is me being hegemonically sucked into the folly of such a notion. Indeed the original listing lists countries in terms of "Attitude of population toward foreign visitors". Does attitude denote friendliness? And what denotes friendliness anyhoo?

But whatever, of course this idea is subjective to the tourist, their own cultural background, expectations, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, the region of the country they are visiting, the time of year, the domestic situation economically, politically, the price of eggs, was the sun shining and ultimately who they meet...did that nice man steal my camera...is she after the contents of my pants or my wallet?


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I agree about New Zealand! Especially on the South Island I have met the friendliest people in the world.
Although Nepal was great too. I am surprised it is not on the list. Reply to this

What 'unfriendly' means in this context:

Bolivia/Venezuela: New-age commies; not to be trusted

Russian Federation/Latvia/Slovakia/Bulgaria/Mongolia: Iron Curtain-commies; deyll neva lurn

Iran/Pakistan: Axxxis of Evil-terrororists

Kuwait: Our allies, but potential Axxxis of Evil once the oil runs dry Reply to this

Yeah right, Cindy, the Polynesians were so friendly that you had to kick them in the nuts! How very Australian of you... ;D

But seriously, I find it amazing that after this rather unpleasant experience you still find them the friendliest ever. Proves that one bad apple doesn't necessarily spoil the whole bunch.

And about Russians: they definitely behave differently when they're outside of Russia, e.g. holidaying in Turkey, Montenegro, Bali, etc. However, when I was in Russia, I found them to be among the friendliest, most helpful and most polite people I'd ever come across. I probably wouldn't say this had I not been able to speak basic Russian.

I thought Morocco on no. 3 on the friendliest-list was rather puzzling. My subjective experience in that country was the worst, worst ever. It was so bad that it's probably the only country in the world I'd never go back to. To this day I still flinch when I ask somebody where they're from and they tell me 'Morocco'. So yeah, they top my unfriendliest-list. Reply to this

LOL - and I do still feel they were friendliest and most helpful people..other than the guy who got the knee in the nuts..i dont think there is a country on earth (oh bhutan maybe) where there is no village idiot.

Interesting Bhutan isnt on the list, guess there is not enough tourism there yet to make the cut. Ive found my bhutanese students to be incredibly friendly and big huggers. Reply to this

Interestingly, the question asked is "How welcome are foreign visitors in your country", so it is the perception of locals on how they treat tourists rather than the visitors perception. Therefore the lower ranking is attributed to locals believing that they could do more to welcome tourists, even though these tourists may already enjoy the hospitality that they are receiving.

Perhaps Bolivians think they should smile more, and thus may actually care about tourism more than a country higher in the ranking who think that they are doing enough, whereas the reality is different.

Two questions later is the following, "How well do companies in your country treat customers?" with Japan the clear winner. A more accurate impression might be to compare how well people perceive customers are treated as opposed to visitors - in other words, do we favour one group over another. I'm sure that there are other questions and methodology that could be proposed.

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As much as I detest sensationist/lazy reporting of research, it irks me even more when people quote these lists at me as if it is some sort of absolute truth. If we had listened to everyone around us, we would never have visited Naples. Yes it scared the pants off us in some ways, but it was also very very interesting. I think the only way to do your research on a country is to go there yourself 😊 Reply to this

I actually found the whole 140 countries list on some Polish news page and Poland came 118 (140 being the worst). I wonder what people here think of our country? We have been leaving in UK for 8 years now so not really sure how tourists are treated etc. Any opinions?
B&T Reply to this