The Maldives has been crowned ‘Favourite Island in Asia’ at the Travel + Leisure World’s Best awards 2023.
The Maldives competed for the honour with returning honorees Phuket (3rd place) and Koh Samui (4th place), as well as Bali (2nd place) and Langkawi (5th place). The Maldives won with a reader score of 95.6.
The Maldives also won second place among the ‘Favourite Islands in the World’, followed by the Great Barrier Reef Islands, Australia.
Rating criteria for islands include Natural Attractions/Beaches, Activities/Sights/ Restaurants/Food, People/Friendliness and Value. For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses.
Nearly 165,000 T+L readers completed the 2023 survey, an increase of nearly 25% over pre-pandemic voting levels. A total of more than 685,000 votes were cast across over 8,500 unique properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc).
Three Maldives resorts were also selected among the 100 ‘Favourite Hotels in the World’ with Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi at 31st place, The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands (33rd place) and Patina Maldives, Fari Islands in the 58th place. The three were among the Favourite ‘Resorts in Asia’ as well.
Travel + Leisure’s annual World’s Best Awards are considered the travel industry’s most trusted rankings. For this year, the awards have 122 lists of reader favourites, including two brand-new categories: trains and luxury villa rental companies.
For the 28th edition of the awards, hundreds of thousands of votes were cast in an extensive survey that was open from 24 October 2022 to 27 February 2023 via a secure website. Respondents had the option to rate airlines, airports, car-rental companies, cities, cruise ships, destination spas, hotels, hotel brands, islands, luxury villa rental companies, safari outfitters, tour operators, trains, and U.S. national parks based on a number of characteristics for which they could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of the responses. Click here for the full list of winners.
