According to the list, Portugal ranks ahead of countries like France, the United States and Germany, and is only three places behind Germany which fell to 15th, possibly due to its handling of Greece and the Euro Zone crisis.
In what is the world’s largest annual survey of country reputations, researchers revealed that Canada has passed Switzerland to regain the top spot.
Since the survey began in 2010, Canada has ranked first in all but two of those years and never lower than second place.
At the top of the list are the Scandinavian nations of Norway in second place, immediately followed by Sweden. Switzerland is fourth, followed by Australia, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark, Netherlands and Belgium in tenth.
“When people perceive a country positively based on their direct experiences and through the lens of others, that translates into increased tourism dollars,” says Fernando Prado, managing partner at Reputation Institute.
“That’s because a country’s reputation dictates supportive behaviours such as the willingness of people to visit that country.”
In 2015, Reputation Institute conducted more than 48,000 interviews for the Country RepTrak survey to measure the public’s perception of 55 countries based on three dimensions: effective government, appealing environment, and advanced economy.
Countries with strong reputations are perceived positively in all three dimensions. The full list of the most reputable countries can be found online at: www.reputationinstitute.com/research/CountryRepTrak.