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These are the destinations you’re most likely to get sick, apparently

The Forbes Advisor Travel Bug Index lists the 25 worst destinations for picking up a bug abroad

Dimple Shiv
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Dimple Shiv
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Imagine saving up for your dream holiday, planning for months, booking the time off work, and then eating something dodgy and falling sick as soon as you land? 

It’s a nightmare scenario – and probably one we’ve all found ourselves in at one point. But you might be able to plan for it in future, thanks to the Forbes Advisor Travel Bug Index, which lists 25 global destinations where travellers are most likely to get sick.

To come up with the list, Forbes reviewed more than 2.4 million Tripadvisor reviews containing terms such as ‘salmonella’, ‘gastroenteritis’ ‘e-coli’, and ‘food poisoning’. They then scored the destinations under each category to create a Travel Bug Index Score on a scale of 0-100.

The research showed that Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic has the highest possibility of troubling you with the travel bug with a 90.4 Travel Bug Index Score, followed by Sharm El Sheik in Egypt at 83.5.

The other destination that made it to the top three is the island of Sal in Cape Verde, with a 70.6 index score.

These are the top 10 travel bug hotspots across the world:

  1. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 
  2. Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt 
  3. Sal, Cape Verde 
  4. Playa del Carmen, Mexico
  5. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
  6. BaliIndonesia
  7. Hurghada, Egypt
  8. TulumMexico
  9. Boa Vista, Cape Verde
  10. CancunMexico

The company followed the same methodology to rank European destinations where you are most likely to catch the travel bug. 

These are the top 10 travel bug hotspots across Europe:

  1. BenidormSpain
  2. LondonUK
  3. Sunny Beach, Bulgaria
  4. ParisFrance
  5. TenerifeSpain
  6. Menorca, Spain
  7. Majorca, Spain
  8. RomeItaly
  9. Zante, Greece
  10. MykonosGreece

You can check out the full list of travel bug hotspots here.

Did you read about the best (and worst) tourist attractions in the world?

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