On the Road, Or Airways, Or Seas: Travelers Reveal Top Destinations

Heart Tail

The Consumer Travel Survey from the Travel Leaders Group always offers some interesting results. A few of the 2015 highlights from the recent responses of 3,300-plus American travelers:

  • Australia tops the “ultimate dream international destination” list for the fourth consecutive survey. Other top choices are Italy, Ireland, New Zealand and a Mediterranean cruise
  • 67% of vacationers will travel by land, 6% plan cruises and 27% are looking to do both
  • The top responses (multiple answers allowed) to how far people plan to travel are: Within the U.S. and farther than a bordering state, 71%; within home state, 43%; bordering state, 37%; Canada/Mexico/Caribbean, 31%; international, 24%
  • Interest in travel to Cuba: 39% say no way (down from 47.6% a year earlier), 35% will consider it and 23% are ready to go either now or when they believe Cuba is ready for Americans

Economic Freedom: Where We Rank

Everybody: "We’re number 9! We’re number 9!"

The Heritage Foundation released a list of the best and worst countries on the economic freedom scale. For more on the actual criteria, see the full post. But here are the top 10 lists:

Most Free

  1. Hong Kong (1st)
  2. Singapore (2nd)
  3. Australia (3rd)
  4. New Zealand (4th)
  5. Switzerland (5th)
  6. Canada (6th)
  7. Ireland (7th)
  8. Denmark (8th)
  9. United States (9th)
  10. Bahrain (10th)

Least Free

  1. Timor-Leste (170th)
  2. Iran (171st)
  3. D.R. of Congo (172nd)
  4. Libya (173rd)
  5. Burma (174th)
  6. Venezuela (175th)
  7. Eritrea (176th)
  8. Cuba (177th)
  9. Zimbabwe (178th)
  10. North Korea (179th)