Geographic Society's Center for Sustainable Destinations and National Geographic Traveler magazine have teamed up again this year to rate the world's most popular destinations on environmental and ecological quality, social and cultural integrity and outlook for the future, among several other categories.The big winner this year is Norway's fjord region, which topped the chart five years ago and increased its score this year. The remainder of the top five rankings (including ties) are sites in Canada, New Zealand, Japan, the United States, Slovenia, Australia, and Spain.
Among the worst-rated were locations in St. Maarten/St. Martin, Mexico, the Bahamas and West Bank. Spain's Costa del Sol received the worst ranking out of the 133 sites ranked.
The rankings were judged by 437 well-traveled experts specializing in different areas of sustainable tourism. Categories include Best-Rated Places, Places Doing Well, Places in the Balance, Places in Trouble, and Worst-rated.
You can read more about the destinations, their rankings, and why they received the ranking at Traveler magazine's website.
See a photo gallery of some of the destinations at National Geographic News.
You can also learn how to travel greener with the Green Guide's Travel and Transportation section.
--James G. Robertson
What Others Had to Say
Added by JerryChan on January 31, 2010
I just spent some time going through these photos of the hot vacation spots and I have to say I can see why Norways Fjord Region is number one. Those mountains are just breathtaking and I wish that one day I can make it over there for a week or two so I can witness such beauty. I have already been to many of the places that were in the top 50 such as the Bahamas and Vermont, but now my next destination is going to be Norway, although I will have to save up a little more money for this trip :)
Jerry