Monday 16 January is Blue Monday, officially the most depressing day of the year, and a survey conducted by Skyscanner has shown that Brits who escaped to Australia on holiday were happier than in any other country.
The survey asked travellers to rate how happy they were on their last holiday, and the results showed that on average, UK tourists in Australia scored a massive 9.7 out of for 10 happiness on holiday.
The “once in a lifetime” destination has a wealth of activities and natural beauty making it a popular choice for many and perhaps unsurprisingly a destination where it’s easy to be happy. Australia is expecting to see a further increase to this popularity from UK visitors in 2012 following a number of recent innovative campaigns promoting flights to Australia.
At the other end of the scale, it appears the economic problems in Greece may be having an impact on the happiness of tourists with the country coming in bottom of the rankings with a score of just 6.2.
The top 20 happiest holiday destinations (out of 10):
| 1 | Australia 9.7 |
| 2 | Italy 9.2 |
| 3 = | Canada 9 |
| 3 = | Hungary 9 |
| 3 = | Malta 9 |
| 3 = | Thailand 9 |
| 7 | USA 8.9 |
| 8 | Spain 8.8 |
| 9 = | UK & Ireland 8.7 |
| 9 = | Egypt 8.7 |
| 11 | Scandinavia 8.6 |
| 12 | Germany 8.5 |
| 13 = | Japan 8.2 |
| 13 = | Croatia 8.2 |
| 15 = | Turkey 8 |
| 15 = | Portugal 8 |
| 17 | India 7.6 |
| 17 = | Netherlands 7.6 |
| 19 | France 7.2 |
| 20 | Greece 6.2 |
The survey results also exposed which Brits were happiest on holiday and found that those on the South Coast had the sunniest outlook on their holidays with residents of Brighton ranking as the no.1 happiest on their travels. Despite a reputation as dour Scots, residents of Edinburgh were actually the third happiest on holiday, and although only 40 miles apart, Manchester and Leeds were eight places apart with Leeds coming in last place.
Ranking of ‘holiday happiness’ by region (out of 10):
| 1 | Brighton 9.33 |
| 2 | Manchester 9 |
| 3 | Edinburgh 8.77 |
| 4 | Newcastle 8.71 |
| 5 | London 8.44 |
| 6 | Belfast 8.16 |
| 7 | Glasgow 8.14 |
| 8 | Birmingham 8.12 |
| 9 | Liverpool 8 |
| 10 | Leeds 7.25 |
