The analysis used data from search and social media posts to determine where people around the world wanted to go for Christmas! Globe Aware volunteers, you may or may not be surprised by the top choices this year!

Where the World Wants to Travel for Christmas This Year, Mapped

The analysis used data from search and social media posts to determine where people around the world wanted to go for Christmas—and dug deeper to provide American data state by state.

By Paul Anthony Jones
Dec 3, 2024
Mental Floss

For some of us, the Christmas holidays are a chance to spend quality time at home with friends and family. For others, though, the festive period provides an opportunity to travel and celebrate Christmas in a different country and culture—and now, a fascinating new analysis has shed a little light on the global festive destinations in which people most want to spend the yuletide season.

Online software company Cloudwards dug into search engine data, Google keyword data, and thousands of social media posts from more than 60 different countries worldwide to compile a list of the world’s most desirable Christmas holiday destinations. Prompts such as “Christmas in ” and “Christmas markets in ” were used to narrow the field to individual cities around the world.

Where the World Wants to Go for Christmas

The analysis revealed that in 2024, the world’s most popular Christmastime destination is London, with holidaymakers in 24 of the study’s 69 countries—including Spain, India, Russia, South Africa, and Mexico—searching for festive trips to the UK capital more than any other city.

The Austrian capital of Vienna, famed for its snowy Christmas markets, came in second, with people in 21 countries—including the U.S. and Canada, as well as Australia and Saudi Arabia—dreaming of visiting it over anywhere else. Third place went to the Czech capital of Prague, which was the favored destination of people in six countries, including the UK and Germany.

In fact, European cities had the strongest showing of all in the study, with nine of the 12 cities the data named being located in Europe; only Tokyo (in fourth place, with a score of four), New York (three) and Shanghai (one) are located elsewhere. Alongside Shanghai (the destination of choice for people in Taiwan), other notable outliers included Paris (which surprisingly came out on top only in Morocco) and Copenhagen (which was the destination searched the most by people in nearby Sweden).

In many places the data seemed to be skewed by proximity, with those looking to spend the holidays elsewhere showing a preference for countries on their national doorstep rather than farther afield. France’s destination of choice, for instance, was Brussels, just across the border in Belgium, while Icelanders were keenest to take the relatively short flight to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. More adventurous trips, however, cropped up in Bolivia (where Madrid, Spain, came out on top) and Japan (which was one of the six world nations that opted for Prague).

Where Americans Want to Go Abroad for Christmas

The analysis’s authors were also able to break the American trends down state by state.

Intriguingly, the U.S. data saw the global no. 1, London, fall into fourth place overall (with only California and New Mexico choosing the UK for Christmas over anywhere else). Instead, it was Vienna that came out on top in the United States, with 19 states searching for festive trips to Austria more than any other city. Paris also ranked highly among Americans (in third place, with a total number of six state), with Rome and Athens rounding out the list of European destinations.

The trend of staying closer to home seems to have continued in the U.S., too, with Quebec City coming in second overall; the 13 states that chose it are mainly clustered in the east and north, with Quebec coming out on top in all the states of New England and down the eastern seaboard to Maryland and Delaware.

Where Americans Want to Go for Christmas in the U.S.

When limiting American data to destinations inside the U.S., the analysis discovered that there’s a three-way tie at the top: Americans are equally interested in spending their holidays in Leavenworth, Washington; Chicago, Illinois; and Branson, Missouri. Boston came in just outside the top three—it was the most searched-for destination in five states—and was just ahead of Helen, Georgia, and New York City, which tie on four each.

In addition showing a propensity for staying close to home at the holidays, many of the destinations highlighted in the U.S. study also showed how popular a traditional Christmas remains: Alongside the snowy metropolises of Chicago and New York, Leavenworth is Washington state’s “City of Lights,” renowned for its immense displays of festive illuminations; Branson, Missouri, is “Christmas Tree City,” and plays host to an annual Ozark Mountain Christmas extravaganza; and Helen, Georgia, is a Bavarian-inspired spot that boasts a traditional Christmas market and an annual parade.