by Jim Byers
Last updated: 2:49 PM ET, Tue October 31, 2017
With the United Nations celebrating World Cities Day today (October 31), TravelBird looked at the top 500 tourists destinations around the world and then took into account factors that can lead to a visitor feeling welcome, including the happiness of locals, openness to tourists, airports and other issues. They gave Singapore the highest rating, with a mark of 8.22. Next were Stockholm (8.02), Helsinki (8.01), San Francisco (8.00) and Rotterdam (7.98).
The next five were Lisbon, Tokyo, Oslo, Zurich, and Orlando, followed by Hamburg, Copenhagen, Dublin, Toronto and Nice.
Toronto was given a total score of 7.52. The city did well on issues of happy locals and safety but the "port of entry" score was just 1.70 out of 10. No Canadian city other than Toronto cracked the top 100, which seems odd.
Surprisingly, London was down at 29th overall and Sydney, Australia was way down at 55.
The top five U.S. cities were San Francisco, Orlando, New York (18), Las Vegas (43) and Miami (45).
The report's authors noted in their study that every city on the top 100 list are welcoming to tourists, and that cities near the bottom of the list "should not be interpreted as unwelcoming."
TravelBird analysed the global top 500 tourist destinations (taken from the UN-WTO), as well as running an expert poll of over 15,000 travel journalists, asking them how welcoming they found each city based on their personal experiences.
But we're certain that those of you outside of Toronto may have an issue with these rankings. So tell us in the comments below, why your city should be included on this list.
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