In the last two weeks, two different reports for best (and worst) countries to travel to have been released.

The first, released by journalists Lyric and Asher Fergusson, creators of the site Asherfergusson.com, dedicated to safe travelling, lists Canada, Sweden and The Netherlands in the top three best places for LGBTQI+ people to travel to. Malta follows at number four, Spain at four, Belgium at nine and the UK at number ten. 

The report puts the USA at number twenty-five, because of the lack of protection against discrimination in certain states and Italy scores a meagre fifty-third place.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the bottom of the list is occupied by Brunei (death by stoning), Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Kuwait. The UAE ranks seventh from the bottom, reminding us that Dubai may be a futuristic city, but there is still a law on the book punishing sex between men with death. And Malaysia, another key tourism destination, also rank poorly, eight from the bottom - here the punishment is between 5 and 14 years in jail, with or without corporal punishment.

Other popular tourism destinations ranking amongst the worst are: Egypt (182/203), Tunisia (181/203), Morocco (179/203), Maldives (174/203), Kenya (162/203), Jamaica (161/203). Russia is number 148 of 203.

The report can be viewed in its entirety here.

The other report, published by longstanding LGBTQI+ publisher Spartacus, lists Malta at number one (the country will host Europride 2023), followed by Canada and Switzerland. Following at joint number four are Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Portugal and Uruguay. Then joint at number nine are Germany, Spain, UK and Iceland. 

Again, unsurprisingly, the bottom ones are Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Chechnya. The UAE, Qatar and Nigeria are just one notch up from the bottom.