Popular tourist destinations in Spain, France and Bulgaria, are ranked among global destinations where tourists could fall ill, while a total of 8,675 posts about getting sick in these places are evident.
Forbes’s study about places where tourists can get physically sick is based on counting 2.4 million posts in online travel group discussions that had words like “salmonella”, “gastroenteritis”, “e-coli” and “food poisoning”, as well as the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) Fit for Travel recommended vaccinations and malaria risk and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) list for avoiding local tap water, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Here are four destinations in Europe where tourists are advised to be cautious in terms of physical health – two of those being in Spain, which is a top destination for holidays every year.
Benidorm & Tenerife, Spain
Among the most highly ranked destinations is Benidorm in Spain, which is positioned 17th, with 2,323 online posts of tourists claiming they got sick here. The Travel Bug Index score, which indicates how likely it is for a tourist to get sick when visiting this place, shows that there is a chance of 3.17 per cent of tourists’ posts about visiting this Spanish destination, could be about falling ill.
Tap water in Benidorm is considered to be safe for consumption and there isn’t any advised vaccination that tourists should take but there is one type of vaccine to be considered so that visitors have a safe journey and fully enjoy this destination.
“While a tummy bug might not sound like much, if you have waited all year for a holiday which you then spend alone in a hotel room feeling awful, it can actually be devastating,” Kevin Pratt, travel expert at Forbes Advisor has noted.
Tenerife, on the other hand, has a lower score in the Travel Bug Index score – 19.3, while 1,700 posts or 3.17 per cent of the total, are related to visitors falling ill at this destination. The tap water in Tenerife is safe for consumption, just like in Benidorm, however, two vaccinations should be considered before visiting this place. The Spanish destination is listed 25th globally, falling behind Dubai and Paris.
Sunny Beach, Bulgaria
A total of 470 posts in travel forums discuss some type of sickness when visiting this European destination, representing 3.03 per cent of the total. The destination is ranked 22nd internationally, with a Travel Bug score of 21.5 and a recommendation for three vaccinations for those visiting this destination while one type of vaccination is officially advisable. Tap water in Bulgaria’s Sunny Beach, which is the most important seaside resort, is not safe for consumption so bottled water would rather be safer.
Paris, France
The most famous European destination is ranked 24th on the list of places where tourists most likely end up sick. Approximately 4,182 posts were made for this destination, accounting for 2.75 per cent of the total. The water is safe for consumption and there is one vaccination recommendation for tourists headed to Paris, which, in general, has a total Travel Bug score of 19.4.
