The 'new Barcelona': Shanghai, Korea tipped to be top holiday draws by 2035
Which are the under-the-radar destinations about to follow the trajectory of Barcelona into the tourism stratosphere? Travel writers offer up Lisbon, Tbilisi and other eastern European cities, Shanghai, and South Korea
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who love Barcelona and those who haven’t been there yet.
Barcelona is as close to a perfect city as there is and an obvious destination for most any kind of traveller: warm, sunny, kissed by Mediterranean breezes, full of nice-looking people and quality restaurants, rife with history and beautiful architecture, safe and with plenty of English spoken. Barcelona is about as mainstream and predictable as travel gets in 2015.
SEE ALSO: How Gaudi’s eccentric Barcelona architecture has shaped hearts and minds
But less than 30 years ago, Barcelona might as well have been the South Pole to most travellers. During a recent trip to Spain’s second city, I was told again and again that the city got very little tourism before hosting the Summer Olympics in 1992. Since then, tourism has become the city’s economic engine.
And that got us wondering what the next Barcelona might be. That is, what cities (or countries or regions) currently hovering under the radar will be mainstream destinations in another 20 to 30 years?
We asked some seasoned travellers for the answer.
