Best Places To Travel In 2018, Or, 2017’s Best Funded Tourism Boards

It’s that time of year again! Every year eager travelers from all over, hungry for inspiration, start to frantically plan their itineraries for the next 12 months. And every year, as if hearing our urgent call, all of the travel publications come to the rescue with a list of exciting destinations that had the best-funded marketing departments the year before.

It’s truly exciting to see which exotic locales decided to bolster tourism with some highly targeted ad spend, well executed PR outreach, and free trips for content editors. It’s really what being an explorer is all about. Where can I go this year that hosted the most luxurious press excursion? Which European city hired the marketing lead with the most friends in publishing? Who gave the best swag baskets??

Well wonder no more! Below is our official list of places to travel in 2018, based exclusively on how effective their marketing teams were leading up to the new year!

5. Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Rio is always a winner, not only in soccer prowess and incredible scenery, but also in gifts that really get the party started at travel website offices. Rio decided to step up its annual holiday existence-reminder with a delightful Make-Your-Own Caipirinha Kit. True, the kit was essentially a bottle of cachaça, a bag of sugar, and a lime that had spoiled by the time it was delivered, but that didn’t stop it from providing an extra carioca kick at office Christmas parties throughout the travel industry. Christmas parties that will now inspire you to visit Rio in 2018.

4. Marrakesh, Morocco

The cultural hub of this North African nation continues to dazzle and entrance year after year with its romantic, exotic, programmatic banner ad targeting. Marrakesh has managed to stay near the top for almost half a decade now by keeping its fragrant markets, thrilling desert excursions, and sequentially messaged rich media units top of mind for all travel list makers. With a new luxury hotel opening up alongside their use of IP targeting, we can wait to see what they’ll bring to the table at which travel publishers work next year.

3. Iceland

Uh they didn’t need to spend anything, OK. It’s Iceland. ICELAND. Iceland.

2. Flint, Michigan

Ah there she is! Every year a recently despondent American city gets an injection of federal tourism dollars in an attempt to sweep tensions under a rug of travelers. And it looks like Flint barely beat out San Juan in this year’s Detroit/New Orleans “City On The Rise” Bowl. Flint scored major points for their catchy jingle “Grin Like Flint” sent to travel influencers as a holiday-gram. The city may have made it higher on this list, too, had their gift of branded office water jugs not gone largely unused in most travel publication workplaces.

1. Bali, Indonesia 

The famous Southeast Asian paradise didn’t rely on bells, whistles or clever gimmicks this year, but instead placed its faith in the natural beauty of the island. And then flew several hundred members of the travel press across the world for 6 days of getting hammered on that island. Not only does this reflect the most significant tourism board investment out of all the countries on the list, it also makes Bali the only destination most of the travel writers actually visited. When you’re number one, though, it helps if people can adequately explain why.