White sand, pristine beaches and crystal clear water have helped a remote beach in Queensland's Whitsundays to be named as one of the best beaches in the world, according to travellers.

Tourism website TripAdvisor has released its list of the best beaches worldwide for 2014 as chosen by its users, and Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island in tropical north Queensland has made it into the top five.

Two West Australian beaches - Turquoise Bay in Exmouth and Broome's Cable Beach - also made it into the world's top 25 beaches, coming in at 20th and 22nd respectively.

World's top 10 beaches 1. Baia do Sancho, Fernando de Noronha, Brazil 2. Grace Bay, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos 3. Flamenco Beach, Culebra, Puerto Rico 4. Rabbit Beach, Lampedusa, Italy 5. Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Island, Australia 6. Playa de ses Illetes, Formentera, Spain 7. Anse Lazio, Praslin Island, Seychelles 8. Lanikai Beach, Kailua, Hawaii 9. Rhossili Bay, Swansea, Wales 10. Playa Norte, Isla Mujeres, Mexico

The results were based on ratings and reviews contributed to the website by travellers over a 12-month period.

Out of the top 25 beaches in Australia, Shelly Beach in Sydney came in fourth, Burleigh Heads in Queensland was rated fifth and Manly in Sydney placed seventh.

According to research from Tourism Queensland, the Whitsundays region hosted 671,000 domestic and international visitors in the year ending September 2013.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind says Queensland should be proud of its beaches, and Whitehaven Beach is remarkable.

"It's the outstanding natural beauty of it, the blue, the coastline, the sand... the bay that's immediately adjacent to the beach with the estuary of the river that flows into the ocean there," he said.

Whitsunday Island is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and is a National Park itself.

Mr Gschwind says the cooperation between tourism operators and government authorities has allowed the beach to retain its untouched character.

"It's a very symbiotic relationship between conservation and commercial tourism use, without in any way diminishing the natural value of that area," he said.

Beach-going travellers seek the unique

Brazil's Baia do Sancho on the Fernando de Noronha islands was named the world's best beach by the Traveller's Choice Awards. ( Flickr: Almir de Freitas )

Brazil's Baia do Sancho on Fernando de Noronha island was named the world's best beach by the traveller awards, but the beach is not an easy one to travel to; the island is 354 kilometres off the coast of Brazil.

It was Australia's remote beaches that also fared best in the survey, compared with popular tourist destinations like the Gold Coast.

Mr Gschwind says there is a trend globally for travellers to seek a unique destination for their holiday and the Whitsundays fit the bill.

Australia's top 20 beaches 1. Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Island, QLD 2. Turquoise Bay, Exmouth, WA 3. Cable Beach, Broome, WA 4. Shelly Beach, Sydney, NSW 5. Burleigh Heads Beach, Burleigh Heads, QLD 6. Four Mile Beach, Port Douglas, QLD 7. Manly Beach, Sydney, NSW 8. Cottesloe Beach, Cottesloe, WA 9. Noosa Main Beach, Noosa, QLD 10. Coolangatta Beach, Coolangatta, QLD 11. The Strand, Townsville, QLD 12. Palm Cove Beach, Palm Cove, QLD 13. Palm Beach, Sydney, NSW 14. Seventy-Five Mile Beach, Fraser Island, QLD 15. Greens Pool, Denmark, WA 16. Surfers Paradise Beach, Surfers Paradise, QLD 17. Balmoral, Sydney, NSW 18. Cronulla Beach Walk, Sydney, NSW 19. Ned’s Beach, Lord Howe Island, NSW 20. Mindil Beach, Darwin, NT

"People want to visit trophy destinations... they want to show it off on Facebook, they want it to be special and they want it to be based on an experience and a connection to the place," he said.

"The average doesn't cut it anymore ... we want to come away with a ... story and a picture that we can share."

The two West Australian beaches that made the cut are also relatively remote.

Evan Hall from the West Australian Tourism Council says the results put the state's beaches out there for the rest of the world to see.

"It wasn't a surprise to the tourism industry in Western Australia but it is a great result," he said.

"I think what we have seen on the list is a strong focus on more remote beaches with a very unusual appeal.

"These things go through fashions as people look for different things in their holiday experience."

He says the beaches that made the list have a particular international appeal.

"I think Cable Beach is quite well known around the world... I think there is a growing understanding that this is a unique part of the world... in a part of the world that is so unusual," he said.

Tourism Australia chief marketing officer Nick Baker said he was not surprised to see so many of Australia's beaches featured in the list.

"Australia is renowned for the quality of its beaches, and rightly so," he said in a written statement.

"The appeal is their distinctiveness and difference, and it's not surprising to see such variety on the list, nor the fact that some of our most remote and unspoilt examples score so highly."

According to a Trip Advisor survey, two in three Australian travellers took a beach holiday in 2013. Four out of five were also planning a beach holiday for 2014.

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