Fodors.com has released its first-annual list of the year’s most popular travel destinations according to the more than 4.5 million unique monthly visitors to the brand’s website. 

 The travel publisher has identified the top 50 worldwide travel locales of 2013 as well as the 50 destinations that have grown most in popularity over 2012, based on destination-guide page views by visitors to Fodors.com from the United States.
While New York City continued to top the travel charts in 2013, many small cities and regions in the U.S. emerged with record interest. Texas Hill Country, situated between Austin and San Antonio and home to a burgeoning wine scene, saw the most dramatic growth in 2013, with a 258 percent increase in page views. Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; and New York’s Hudson Valley also saw increased interest in 2013 and joined New Orleans, Napa and Sonoma, and Washington, DC in the top 50 most popular destinations for the year.
Europe experienced a post-recession travel resurgence last year. Paris and Rome appear in the top 10 of the year’s most visited destinations, while page views of Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, and Iceland more than doubled.

“Europe is back in a big way, with the strongest numbers we’ve seen in years,” says Arabella Bowen, editor in chief of Fodor’s Travel. “A number of great events and cultural happenings, like Ireland’s The Gathering, as well as terrific travel values in countries like Spain have helped put a spotlight on travel to the continent.”
Highlighting the popularity of warm-weather destinations among Americans, the report also revealed that 11 of the top 25 most-visited destination guides were beach retreats. Hawaii is a perennial favorite, along with Caribbean islands like St. Martin and Turks and Caicos. Mexican hotspots showed tremendous growth last year, with travelers showing increased interest in Isla Mujeres, Los Cabos, and the Riviera Maya. Other beach destinations with a significant uptick in interest included Puerto Rico (particularly San Juan and Vieques and Culebra); St. John and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands; and the Dominican Republic.
