One Ontario city makes list of top 100 most-loved travel destinations in the world

People enjoy activities on Lake Ontario during the COVID-19 pandemic at Jack Darling Park in Mississauga, Ont. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette)

A new list revealing the top 100 travel destinations worldwide has been released and one city in Ontario city has made the cut.

According to the Tourism Sentiment Index, which ranked the top 100 most-loved destinations in 2021, Mississauga came in at number 42. 

It was the only destination in Ontario to made the 2021 list. 

"Each of these 100 destinations has earned the love and an impressive Tourism Sentiment Score during one of the toughest years the tourism industry has faced," the report said. 

The number one destination on the 2021 list is Sunshine Coast, which is located in Queensland, Australia. 

There were a number of other Canadian destinations that made the list, including Canmore, Kelowna, Richmond, and Shuswap.

"These Leading Places are the 100 most loved destinations in 2021 according to what people really feel. No one has paid to be named. No surveys have suggested an answer. Word of mouth built this list, unprompted and unbiased," the Tourism Sentiment Index said in its report released this week.

"To be able to name the top 100, we kicked off 2022 with an intensive study of our Tourism Sentiment Index data -- that's 1.6 billion online conversations and content pieces publicly available about 21,330 global destinations."

TOP 50 PLACES IN CANADA ALSO NAMED

The Tourism Sentiment Index also put out a list of Canada's top 50 most-loved destinations in 2021. 

The only other place in Ontario, besides Mississauga, to crack in the top 10 list was Niagara, which came in third place.

Toronto came in 17th place, while Ottawa came 34th. Kitchener placed 47th in Canada, while Barrie came 27th.

The number one spot in Canada was ranked Richmond, B.C.