If Eurovision was a holiday contest, these are the countries that would win

According to Airbnb

Forget the singing and dancing for a second. Imagine that Eurovision worked differently this year, with countries voting for their favourite holiday destinations rather than their favourite performers. Well imagine no longer, Airbnb’s done the math and released how things would shake out with these travel-based predictions ahead of the tonight's semi-final.

The top ten finalists would be as follows:

1. France
2. Spain
3. Italy
4. UK
5. Australia
6. Germany
7. Portugal
8. Netherlands
9. Croatia
10. Denmark

These ten nations were the most booked places for the online booking platform between April 2016 -2017, based on where member countries were arranging accommodation internationally. (So as with standard Eurovision rules, nobody got to vote for themselves).

Despite France’s uneven Eurovision track record, they swept these imaginary predictions as Europe (and Australia’s) favourite place to holiday. Spain was hot on their heels and Italy, this year’s favourite to win with an eccentric performance by Francesco Gabbani, came in at a very respectable third place.

Unsurprisingly, these warmer climates were particularly popular with those chilling out further north in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland.

The UK also managed to work their way up the chart at fourth place and according to the research, they were actually Ireland’s second favourite country to visit. Australia, Cyprus and Malta also had a soft spot for the British isles, with the country ranking in at third place for all three nations.

Although Russia won’t actually be competing in this year’s Eurovision after their contestant Julia Samoylova was banned from entering the host country Ukraine, they were still included in these predictions. It didn’t really matter though as it was slim pickings for the country, coming in at an underwhelming 19th place. However they still did better than San Marino, which ranked last out of all the countries on the list.

The full list is below:

1. France
2. Spain
3. Italy
4. UK
5. Australia
6. Germany
7. Portugal
8. Netherlands
9. Croatia
10. Denmark
11. Greece
12. Ireland
13. Belgium
14. Czech Republic
15. Hungary
16. Poland
17. Austria
18. Norway
19. Russian Federation
20. Switzerland
21. Sweden
22. Iceland
23. Israel
24. Finland
25. Malta
26. Slovenia
27. Romania
28. Estonia
29. Georgia
30. Cyprus
31. Lithuania
32. Bulgaria
33. Latvia
34. Ukraine
35. Montenegro
36. Serbia
37. Belarus
38. Albania
39. Macedonia
40. Armenia
41. Republic of Moldova
42. Azerbaijan
43. San Marino

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It’s all a bit of fun really and while there’s no knowing who’s really going to sweep the title on May 13’s Grand Final, it’s still exciting to see the UK in the top five. However, former X Factor contestant Lucie Jones could scoop the sixth Eurovision win for the UK with her glamorous starry performance of Never Give Up On You.

The first of the Eurovision 2017 semi-finals was held on May 9, with the second round happening tomorrow on May 11. The Grand Final will be held on Saturday, May 12 and will be broadcast on BBC One at 8pm as well as YouTube.