BERLIN, Germany, Monday March 12, 2018 – When it comes to visitor satisfaction, no country does it better than Barbados. That’s according to the 2017 Destination Satisfaction Index (DSI) which has the Caribbean island in the top spot.

The DSI, developed and executed by two European research companies – Norstat and dp2research – measures the overall valuation of a holiday destination based on the factors travellers find most attractive.

The online survey was administered to more than 70,000 travellers in 24 source markets who gave their feedback on 20 categories including beaches, accommodation, cuisine and shopping. Of the 144 countries included, Barbados had the highest overall World score of 8.8/10 and also ranked highest in the accommodation category, with a score of 8.8/10.

“The feedback was that people, especially when it comes to Barbados, were extremely happy with the trip provided,” said Marc Leimann, Managing Director of Norstat Germany. “Barbados, basically, really challenged and won against the world in total.”

A Barbados delegation led by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and International Transport, Donna Cadogan, accepted the awards during a ceremony at ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade show held in Germany’s capital city.

“For us, it’s going to be very advantageous because with our marketing and our public relations, we’re going to be saying we’re [the] best in the world, at least for the next 12 months,” said chief executive of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc., William Griffith. “And I think it helps us in our quest to move forward in terms of pressing for success for Barbados tourism.”

Seychelles was second in the DSI this year, followed by Bermuda.