The results of ITN’s latest annual "Where Did You Go" contest

By Armond Noble
This item appears on page 81 of the April 2011 issue.

Here are the results of ITN’s latest annual “Where Did You Go?” This for the year 2010.

Now, in years past, we held it down to sovereign nations only. We didn’t want to look like others who recognize 325 or so entities, as the list just gets too unwieldy, but this year we didn’t put in that requirement, so you’ll have to wade through a few more.

Yes, we know that Sicily is part of Italy and that Tahiti is in French Polynesia. Whatever the readers put down is what we recorded. And some job it was! There are 233 locations. And we counted 1,550 entity votes.

We fear that some who went to Antarctica or the Galápagos didn’t put it down, as neither is a nation. While others wrote in “Tibet” or “Sikkim,” even though each is part of another country. But here we go. In cases of ties, the countries are in brackets and in alphabetical order.

You might run your finger down the list, checking off where you’ve been. Then, finding where you haven’t been, decide, “Let’s go there!”

When added together, the number-one winner was “England/UK, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland.” With 78% as many votes, next came Germany. Followed by, in this order, Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, Greece, Croatia, [Egypt, Switzerland], [Austria, Netherlands], Thailand, Argentina and China.

Continuing down the list — [Japan, South Africa], [Panama, Russia], [Hungary, Portugal] [Australia, Czech Republic, Jordan, Montenegro], [Belgium, India, Morocco], [Norway, Vietnam], [Chile, Finland, Israel, Peru, Poland, Singapore], [Denmark, Tunisia], [Honduras, Namibia], [Belize, Botswana, Brazil, Estonia, Colombia, Iceland, Malta, Slovakia, Ukraine].

And then you voted for [Bhutan, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Ireland, Kenya, St. Kitts], [Bahamas, Barbados, Bulgaria, Dubai, El Salvador, Fiji, Gibraltar, Guatemala, Nepal. Slovenia, Sweden], [Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hong Kong, Indonesia, New Zealand, Oman, Senegal, Zambia, Zimbabwe].

Will your next destination be from these? [Antarctica, Benin, Dominica, Ecuador, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Philippines, South Korea, Romania, Serbia, Tanzania, Togo].

Or possibly [French Polynesia, Ghana, Laos, Lebanon, Lithuania, Seychelles, St. Lucia, St. Martin, Syria, Uruguay].

Perhaps [Abu Dhabi, Antigua, Bahrain, Burma, Ethiopia, Greenland, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Samoa, Sint Maarten, Swaziland, Taiwan].

Are these on your radar? [Algeria, Aruba, Belarus, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Canary Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Falkland Islands, the Galápagos, Gambia, Grenada, Iran, Luxembourg, Maldives, Mauritius, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Tahiti, Vanuatu].

Off the beaten track — [American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Crete, Curaçao, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Jamaica, Kiribati, Madeira, Mali, Marquesas, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, New Caledonia, Newfoundland, North Korea, Okinawa, Puerto Rico, Qatar, São Tomé & Príncipe, Sardinia, Sicily, Solomon Islands, St. Barts, Tasmania, Trans Dniester, Turkmenistan, Turks & Caicos, Tuvalu, UAE, US Virgin Islands, Uzbekistan, Vatican City, Western Sahara, Yemen].

Last but not least, the intrepid went to [Andorra, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bora Bora, Borneo, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Christmas Island, Cocos-Keeling, Comoros, Cook Islands, Corsica, Easter Island, Equatorial Guinea, French Guiana, Gabon, Guam, Guernsey, Haiti, Jersey, Kaliningrad, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Labrador, Liberia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Majorca, Malawi, Mayotte, Moorea, Nauru, Nevis, Paraguay, Peloponnese, Prince Edward Island, Saipan, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Shetland Islands, Sierra Leone, Sikkim, South Georgia, St. Vincent, Svalbard, Tajikistan, Tibet, Tobago, Tonga, Tuomoto Islands, Uganda].

Yes, we know (for but just one example) that Dubai and Abu Dhabi are in the UAE. (Three entities.) But that’s how the respondents entered them.

As always, we depend on our readers to make any suggestions as to how the survey should be conducted next year.

I’m out of space, so the winners of the many prizes will be announced here in this column next month.