Valladolid among nine destinations selected by panel of popular travel influencers as poised to boom in 2019.

Denver, USA (November 30, 2018) – A panel consisting of six of the world’s top travel influencers has voted Valladolid, Yucatan, as among the nine top emerging North American travel destinations for 2019. The awards were published today on the site TravelLemming.com, which focuses on emerging and off-the-beaten path travel spots around the globe. The full article, which is written in English, can be found here.

Nominations for the awards were submitted by dozens of tourism boards around the world.

Winners for the North American awards were selected by an expert panel consisting of six of the best renowned travel bloggers and Youtubers in the world, with a combined following on social media of over 1.7 million. 

Travel Lemming is also holding a contest to select a “Readers’ Pick Award” winner. Readers can vote for their favorite destination, including Valladolid, by visiting the article. Voting closes December 12, 2018.

In describing why Valladolid won, the article reads: “[T]hose who build in the time to soak up this magical village will soon come to wonder why it wasn’t at the top of their list to begin with. From stunning Spanish colonial architecture to bustling markets, visitors to Valladolid will be spoiled for choice of activities.”

Nate Hake, CEO and founder of Travel Lemming, said: “If there is one major trend I see in the travel industry these days, it’s a desire among tourists – especially the millennial crowd – to blaze their own path rather than follow the other ‘travel lemmings’ over the cliff to the same tired and over-touristed hubs. And so I came up with these annual awards as a way of providing inspiration to travelers and rewarding those destinations that are currently underappreciated.”

The judges panel included Youtube stars Nadine Sykora of Hey Nadine! and Kara and Nate Buchanan of Kara & Nate, as well as Travis Sherry, host of iTunes’ top travel podcast, Extra Pack of Peanuts. The panel also included popular travel bloggers Hannah and Adam Lukaszewicz of Getting Stamped, Erick Prince of Minority Nomad, and Dariece Swift and Nick Wharton of Goats on the Road.

They are each among the best known travel influencers in the world, collectively sporting over 1.7 million followers on social media and Youtube.

The site TravelLemming.com is dedicated to the promotion of travel to emerging travel destinations. The name lemming derives from the Scandinavian rodent, which is rumored (falsely) to engage in such mindless group behavior that it will literally follow fellow lemmings of a cliff to death. Travel Lemming encourages travelers to think beyond the popular destinations and to forge their own path.

Travel Lemming was started by its founder Nate Hake, an American traveler from Denver, Colorado who is most famous for visiting 43 countries in a single year.