What is the happiest place on earth? Honduras, according to one study

A study has used facial recognition technology to rank the happiest tourist spots around the world. Photo / File

A company claims to have discovered the tourist spot where people are most happy, using facial recognition technology on Instagram photos.

If you want to be happier, simply travel to Manawakie Eco Nature Park in Honduras. It’s the tourist spot travellers are most likely to give the most genuine smile in photographs, according to a study by Casago.

The vacation rentals company took the top 10 most popular tourist attractions in 100 different countries on TripAdvisor and then ran Instagram photos taken at these spots through facial recognition technology.

Each photo was given a “happiness” score from 0 to 100 depending on how genuinely happy each person in the photo was, according to the technology.

Attractions were then ranked according to the percentage of happy faces in photos taken there.

New Zealand did not make the list of top 20 spots, however, Milford Sound was the attraction with the highest percentage of smiling Instagram pictures in New Zealand.

Top 20 tourist spots that make people smile

In spot number one was Manawakie Eco Nature Park, in Honduras. Of the Instagram photos tagged with this location, 76.0 per cent had smiling faces.

Close behind was Tobago Forest Reserve in Trinidad and Tobago (70.6 per cent), and Gumbalimba Park, Honduras (68.5 per cent).

Other spots in the top 20 included Pidurangala Rock in Sri Lanka (66.2 per cent), the Inca Trail in Peru (66.7 per cent), and the Sacred Money Forest Sanctuary in Bali (60.7 per cent).

Of the top 20 attractions, 14 were in Latin America. Four of these were in Brazil specifically, including Rio de Janeiro’s Botanical Garden, where 66.7 per cent of photos had people smiling.

Notably, all 20 top attractions were either natural features or deep within a natural setting.

Science has long backed this up. Countless studies attest to the physical and emotional benefits of spending time outside, amongst nature.

In some extremes, people who live in green spaces both seem to be happier, and possibly live longer than those who don’t.

Happiest places around the world

In Australia, Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden earned the highest percentage of smiling pictures, while in the UK, it was Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. Over in the US, the Empire State Building took the top spot.