A new study conducted by the online travel specialists TravelBird explores how over-tourism affects residents and impacts how welcoming cities are to tourists.
October 31st has been designated by the United Nations as World Cities Day, with the theme ‘Innovative Governance, Open Cities’. To mark the occasion, TravelBird has released this study to further the discussion about sustainable tourism and global urbanization.
As a travel provider, TravelBird feel they have a duty to promote thoughtful travel and sustainable tourism. They undertook this study firstly to take notice of those cities that are making impressive efforts to welcome tourists with responsibility, and secondly to open the dialogue about over-tourism and its impact on residents and their surrounding communities.
Stockholm ranks 2 out of 100, with a low level of over-tourism, high levels of happiness, high levels of safety and a high opinion from journalists regarding their welcoming attitude. Oslo ranks as number 8, and Copenhagen ranks as number 12!
To create the ranking, TravelBird first analysed the global top 500 tourist destinations (taken from the UN-WTO) based on factors that can make a visitor feel welcome, such as a welcoming port of entry (airport, train station etc.), citizens’ happiness, safety, openness to host tourists, and English language proficiency.
Furthermore, they ran an expert poll asking over 15,000 travel journalists how welcoming they found each city based on their personal experiences. TravelBird then weighted all of these factors with a formula that measures over-tourism in each destination to determine the final ranking of 100 cities. This research highlights a precise selection of popular cities around the world in order to give an international overview, meaning there are undoubtedly many welcoming cities not included in this study.
About the United Nations World Cities Day: The United Nations General Assembly has designated the 31st of October as World Cities Day. The general theme of World Cities Day is Better City, Better Life, while each year a different sub-theme is selected, to either promote successes of urbanization, or address specific challenges resulting from urbanization. This year, the United Nations has selected the theme Innovative Governance, Open Cities to highlight the important role of urbanization as a source of global development and social inclusion. For more information, please visit: http://www.un.org/en/events/citiesday/
About TravelBird: TravelBird is an online travel company offering a curated collection of holiday and travel experiences – from short inspirational breaks to international get-aways. TravelBird’s passionate local travel advisors work directly with tour operators across the world to offer a selection of travel experiences that invite travelers to discover something new and immerse themselves in different cultures. For more information, please visit: https://travelbird.nl
Scandinavian Capitals Rank Among the World’s Most Welcoming Cities, source TravelBird
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