The friendly city index
How Auckland ranks
Auckland is down the list of the world’s friendliest cities in the world on 28th spot, one above London but well above Sydney which is in 55th place.
According to a study of the top 500 tourist destinations in the world put together by online travel specialists TravelBird, Singapore is the world’s most welcoming city based on how forthcoming it is on the back of its levels of over-tourism.
The ranking index, determined on the welcoming port of entries such as airports and train stations, citizens’ happiness, safety, openness to host tourists, and English language proficiency, found Stockholm in Sweden to be the second friendliest city in the world, and Helsinki and San Francisco in third and fourth places.
Rotterdam in the Netherlands was ranked in fifth place, followed by Lisbon in Portugal in sixth place, Tokyo and Norway’s Oslo. Switzerland’s Zurich and Orlando also made the list of the top 10 list.
Sydney was ranked 55th on the list, and Melbourne 68th.
TravelBird chief executive Steven Klooster said it was important to confront the growing problem of over-tourism — the motivation for creating the index.
“We undertook this study as the first step towards a more sustainable future,” Klooster said.
“It’s a call-to-action to ourselves and to fellow tour operators, residents and local governments in those places that are worst affected by over-tourism, to work together to find solutions.”
Steve Armitage, general manager of destination at Auckland Tourism, Events & Economic Development (Ateed) said it was great to see Auckland ranked as the most welcoming city in Oceania.
“Like other parts of New Zealand, Auckland’s visitor economy is booming. With the boom has come pressure on infrastructure, which has the potential to impact on the visitor experience,” Armitage said.
“There needs to be a careful balance between encouraging the growth of tourism in Auckland, so that it’s sustainable and doesn’t impact on Auckland’s natural environment and the experience our visitors have here.
“We are looking for ways we can make the most of tourism, and protect and enhance our environment for future generations.”
Barcelona in Spain was found to be the city worst affected by overtourism, followed by Mumbai in India, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Venice and Hanoi in Vietnam.
Mexico City, Milan, Sao Paulo, Budapest and Bucharest in Romania were also found to be some of the worst hit cities by over-tourism. Doha in Qatar, Manama in Bahrain, Lima in Peru, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Kathmandu in Nepal have the lowest levels of over-tourism.
Based on individual factors, Singapore scored the best for port of entry, Abu Dhabi was found to be the safest city in the index, Oslo in Norway was found to be the happiest city and Dublin scored the highest for English proficiency.
Paris was found to be the city most willing to open its homes to tourists.