South Africa replaces New Zealand as Greatest Country on Earth

South Africa has been named the Greatest Country on Earth by over 30,000 travel enthusiasts! Although South Africans have always known that (!), for the last ten years in a row New Zealand had won that accolade, with most tourists wanting to travel there.

But now it’s SA’s turn to shine in the sun. The readers of Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper voted in their thousands, putting South Africa at the top of the Travel Awards! And voting Cape Town as the Best Worldwide City!

The editors claim New Zealand’s fall from favour could be due to its stringent no-visitors policy during the Covid pandemic, which meant that for a long time fewer tourists could visit. New Zealand had held the coveted first place since 2012 (apart from during lockdown when the polls were paused). But now that it’s been nudged out by SA, New Zealand still sits high at number two.

Of South Africa, which jumped from fifth place in 2019 to first now, The Telegraph says:

“You can fly to two South African cities (Johannesburg, Cape Town) directly from the UK, and arrive free of jet-lag due to a near-identical time-zone.

“Your reward for 12 hours in the air is a place of true beauty – Cape Town a supermodel at the foot of Table Mountain, the Garden Route a ribbon of road-trip nirvana, the wineries of Franschhoek and Stellenbosch crafting fine vintages, the landscape thrilling to the peaks and troughs of the Drakensberg range and Motlatse Canyon, Kruger National Park a roaring wildlife zone.”

Also in the Top 5 are The Maldives (3rd), Japan (4th) and Australia (5th).

Kenya also did well, jumping from 21st to 7th, whilst Botswana dropped from 6th to tenth. Cape Town and Nairobi (Kenya) recently started a joint campaign to bring more tourism to their cities.

Read The Telegraph’s full poll here.