Tourists at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei. Tourists at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei. (AP photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Popular travel website GlobeSpots.com has ranked Taiwan 8th in their list of top travel destinations for 2019.

Globe Spots characterized Taiwan as “classic travel for great sights and convenient travel.”

Sao Tome and Principe was ranked first in the 2019 feature, followed by Belarus, Sweden, and Bhutan. This is the second time that Taiwan has been recognized in the annual list, with the island nation previously named in 2010.

The feature described Taiwan as “strikingly unique - and a bit weird,” and noted the island’s diversity, nature and culture. Globe Spots underscored Taiwan’s relatively small size and culinary depth as points of difference.

For the first time in a calendar year, over 11 million tourists visited Taiwan in 2018. Taiwan has seen strong tourism growth in recent years, off the back of relaxed visa requirements for citizens of some Southeast Asian nations, as well as growing international prominence of the island as a tourist destination.

Globe Spot’s top 10 destinations for 2019 are outlined below: