Asia's leading national park: Vietnam's cave country takes the crown

At the World Travel Awards' 2026 regional ceremony in the Maldives, Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park won both 'Vietnam's Leading Nature Destination' and 'Asia's Leading National Park' — a double crown for 123,300 hectares of million-year-old karst that holds Son Doong, the world's largest cave, plus some 2,700 plant species and 154 mammal species. The highland town of Ta Xua took 'Asia's Leading Emerging Tourism Destination,' and Vietnam itself was named 'Asia's Leading Destination' and 'Asia's Leading Heritage Destination.' A million years of limestone, finally getting its flowers.