It has become a tradition that my first column of the year is devoted to the results of Lonely Planet's annual 'Top Destinations for the Coming Year' survey, polled from LP's global staff.

This year we asked LP staffers to choose their top three destinations, enabling them to extol a wider range of places. The resulting list was longer and more tantalizing than ever, but five places emerged as clear winners.

1. New Zealand
2. Australia
3. Peru
4. Croatia
5. Thailand

Only one of this year's winners appeared in last year's Top 5, but what a winner! Remarkably enough, for the second year running, the top destination is New Zealand.

Yes, the perfect storm of spectacular pristine scenery, hospitable citizenry, compelling culture, perceived geopolitical safety and free global big-screen advertising courtesy of Lord of the Rings has catapulted New Zealand into the coveted top spot for the second year in a row.

One LP staffer summarized many responses when he wrote, "I'm going to say New Zealand for number one. I think it's a great country. It's a long way from the political hot spots of the world, which makes it fairly safe. The scenery is spectacular, and there's a huge variety of it in such a small country: beautiful secluded beaches, geysers, mud pools, volcanoes, mountains, lakes, fjords (they filmed LOTR there for a good reason, you know). There's a strong sense of culture as well as a relaxed attitude. And as an added incentive, it's nuclear-free - no nuclear warships, submarines or power stations are allowed."

One respondent invoked an entirely different cinematic inspiration: "Hopefully Whale Rider - a great NZ flick that came out recently and has a lot of people around the world talking - will encourage people to discover the East Coast region; it's an amazing place! Local highlights include watching an East Coast rugby match at Ruatoria, catching your own crayfish for dinner and staying on a marae."

But for most, Hollywood's homage was just icing on an already alluring cake. "You just can't beat NZ for having everything you could possibly want in a holiday, apart from guaranteed great weather," emailed one staffer. "It's politically neutral in the current war environment and cheap as chips while maintaining high Western standards in quality of goods and services."

The Pacific

Among the Pacific Islands singled out for praise by LP'ers were Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Tahiti, New Caledonia and Tuvalu, but after New Zealand and Australia, the third top vote-getter in the region was the Cook Islands.

One description in particular had me packing my bags: "The number one South Pacific destination is stunningly beautiful Aitutaki. There are numerous inexpensive flights from Rarotonga, it's well set up for travellers, yet it's quiet as a mouse - for some reason the vast majority of travellers who get to Rarotonga never discover Aitutaki. Nursing a couple of Cook Islands Lagers at O'otu Beach and watching the sun go down over Aitutaki Island while the umu is cooking - now that's a fine way to travel."

Reprinted in part with permission of Lonely Planet.