The Dead Sea was ranked as the world’s second-worst tourist destination in a list published last week, which highlighted the salt lake’s distance and regional instability as reasons for its near-bottom ranking.
The list was issued by Stasher, a global luggage storage network that said it analyzed 101 of the world’s most popular attractions and organized them based on a number of metrics.
The site said it rated the attractions based on five factors: Google Reviews ratings, TikTok engagement, airport accessibility, country safety and local accommodation quality.
The Dead Sea, which is also the lowest place on earth, is a massive salt lake nestled between Israel, Jordan and the West Bank.
Its coasts are dotted with upscale beach resorts and spas, and its salty muds are renowned worldwide for their rejuvenating skincare properties.
However, its isolation from any major cities or airports, its unsafe roads and issues with accessibility, and its position between Middle East conflict hotspots, “significantly impact visitor satisfaction,” Stasher said, giving the Dead Sea a score of 3.51 out of 10.
Edging out the Dead Sea for the unflattering distinction, the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California, was rated as the worst tourist destination on the planet, chiefly due to its relatively unsafe location and its distance from LAX airport.
The walk, which honors celebrities with stars on the sidewalk, had the worst Google reviews of all 101 attractions analyzed by Stasher, and was given a measly 2.67 out of 10 in the rankings.
Rounding out the bottom 10 in the rankings were Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, the Great Wall of China, Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, the MONA art museum in Tasmania, the UK’s Stonehenge, Disneyland Paris, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Peru’s Machu Picchu.
Ranking number one on Stasher’s list of highest-ranked tourist sites was Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia, followed by the Colosseum in Rome and the Eiffel Tower in Paris to round out the top three. Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza were ranked sixth overall, and was the only site in the Middle East to land in the top ten.
