For its annual Readers’ Choice Awards survey, the travel magazine asked readers to rate their favorite countries across the globe, and attracted a record 600,000 votes. The listing, released Wednesday, was based on a scoring system representing overall average levels of satisfaction. 

Vietnam scored 90.46 percent to rank behind Southeast Asian neighbors such as Indonesia (1st) with 92.78, Thailand (2nd) with 92.37 and the Philippines (9th) with 90.63 percent.

Portugal came in third on the list. Sri Lanka and South Africa rounded out the top five, with Peru, Greece and Italy making up the top 10.

Indonesia, home to Bali, made a big jump from 13th last year to top the ranking. Cambodia was at 19th with a score of 89.03 percent.

An aerial view of the charming landscape in Ninh Binh Province, northern Vietnam.
Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Trang.

Vietnam is the only Southeast Asian country among the world's 10 fastest growing travel destinations, according to a U.N. report released last month.

The latest World Travel Awards has chosen the country as "Asia’s Leading Culinary Destination" reaffirming the growing international reputation of its cuisine.

It has improved its tourism competitiveness ranking to 63rd out of 140 countries and territories in 2019 in the biennial Travel and Tourism Competitiveness report by the World Economic Forum, jumping four places from 67th in 2017.

Earlier this year the Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2019-2023 report by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) said Vietnam would lead Asia-Pacific destinations in terms of average annual growth over the next five years.

The number of international visitors to the country has risen consistently for the last three years, soaring from 10 million in 2016 to 15.6 million in 2018, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism reported. 

Tourism contributed 8.39 percent of Vietnam’s GDP last year, and the government seeks to make the industry an economic spearhead.

In the first nine months of this year 12.9 million foreigners came to Vietnam, an increase of 10.8 percent year-on-year.