The world’s best tourist destination for 2016?

The world’s best tourist destination? It’s not Spain, the US, or even Telegraph Travel readers’ favourite country New Zealand, but Ethiopia, according to the European Council on Tourism and Trade.

The East African country, which suffered a series of famines in the 1980s but can boast some of the continent’s most dramatic landscapes, was praised by the non-profit association of EU tourism organisations for its “excellent preservation of humanity landmarks”.

The country’s highlights include the monolithic rock-hewn churches at Lalibela; the Simien Mountains National Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site that is home to a number of endangered species, including Ethiopian wolf and walia ibex and the otherworldly Danakil Depression, with its colourful sulphur and salt lakes.