LONDON FAILS TO WOW DESPITE TRIUMPH OF ‘JUBILYMPICS’ YEAR

Capital falls flat on friendliness but ranks highly for taxi services and shopping

We at TripAdvisor can today reveal how London compares to some of the key tourist cities around the world when it comes to traveller experiences. The TripAdvisor Cities Survey is an in-depth look into how travellers and locals view 40 cities around the world – and it doesn’t look good for the Captial.

Despite the triumphant ‘Jubliympics’ celebrations in London this year, London fails to shine in most of the 10 categories included in the study. These include: friendliness of locals, cleanliness of streets, public transport, value for money, friendliness of taxi drivers and shopping. The results were compiled based on more than 75,000 responses to a survey sent to those who have recently written TripAdvisor reviews on the featured cities.

London’s friendliness and cleanliness leave a lot to be desired

Despite the big clean-up in the lead up to this year’s Diamond Jubilee and Olympics, London is ranked 26th in the cleanliness of streets category. Tokyo comes top. And whilst London was praised during the Olympics for the friendliness and enthusiasm of the Games Makers, the city has ranked second to last in the friendliest locals category, with only Moscow worse. Mexico’s Cancun was voted the city with the friendliest locals.

“While London hasn’t ranked particularly highly by those that have reviewed the city this year, it’s important to remember that many of the respondents may have experienced London before major changes were made or post the events of the summer,” commented TripAdvisor spokesperson, Emma Shaw.

London middle of the road for ease of getting around

When it comes to ease of getting around, London is ranked as decidedly average by those that have experienced the city – coming in 17th place. Closely following is Dublin in 21st place. Other European destinations, however, were voted far easier to navigate with Zurich and Vienna taking first and second places respectively.

Taxis and Transport

Many of London’s commuters may not be surprised to hear that the city has not ranked well for its public transport, coming in 15th. According to respondents, it seems that taking a taxi might be the best bet when visiting Dublin and London – the cities rank fourth and fifth places respectively for best taxi services. And Dublin comes in fifth place globally for the city with the friendliest taxi drivers, ahead of London cabbies in 12th place.

Lisbon number one city for value, while London in bottom five

Of the 40 cities included in the study, Portugal’s Lisbon has been awarded top spot in the value for money category, followed by Budapest in Hungary. Despite London’s plethora of free museums, parks and attractions, London only ranked 35^th in the best value city category.

London still shines for shopping

New York is crowned the best city for shopping of the featured cities, with Bangkok runner-up and Dubai taking third place. London ranks an impressive fourth, beating off stiff competition from the likes of Tokyo (5^th), Hong Kong (6^th) and Paris (11^th).

“The popularity of London as one of the most visited cities in the world remains and travellers will continue to rave about it as a loved destination. Indeed this year London was voted the best city in the world in the 2012 TripAdvisor Travellers Choice Awards.  Even so, this study perhaps proves that even a great city isn’t going to be perfect in every way,” continued TripAdvisor spokesperson, Emma Shaw.

 

 

TripAdvisor 2012 Cities Survey results overview:

London specific:

Category	London ranking (out of 40)
Friendliest locals	39th place
Friendliest taxi drivers	12th place
Best taxi services	5th place
Cleanest streets	26th place
Ease of getting around	17th place
Best public transport	15th place
Best value for money	35th place
Best for shopping	4th place
Most underrated	23rd place
Safest city	28th place

Overall Top Performers:

Category	First place	Second place	Third place
Friendliest locals	Cancun	Tokyo	Lisbon
Friendliest taxi drivers	Tokyo	Cancun	Singapore
Best taxi services	Tokyo	Singapore	Dubai
Cleanest streets	Tokyo	Singapore	Zurich
Ease of getting around	Zurich	Vienna	Singapore
Best public transport	Tokyo	Zurich	Munich
Best value for money	Lisbon	Budapest	Bangkok
Best for shopping	New York City	Bangkok	Dubai
Most underrated city	Budapest	Lisbon	Cape Town
Safest city	Tokyo	Singapore	Dubrovnik

Overall Low Rankers:

Category	Last place	Second last	Third last
Friendliest locals	Moscow	London	Hong Kong
Friendliest taxi drivers	Moscow	Beijing	Brussels
Best taxi services	Moscow	Beijing	Kuala Lumpur
Cleanest streets	Mumbai	Marrakech	Punta Cana
Ease of getting around  to get around	Mumbai	Punta Cana	Moscow
Best public transport	Hanoi	Sharm el Sheikh	Marrakech
Best value for money	Oslo	Moscow	Zurich
Best for shopping	Moscow	Oslo	Punta Cana
Most underrated city	Punta Cana	Dubai	Sharm el Sheikh
Safest city	Punta Cana	Rio de Janeiro	Sharm el Sheikh

-Ends-

For more information please contact Hayley Coleman hcoleman@tripadvisor.com / 020 3194 2150.

 

Note to Editors:

The survey was sent to travellers that have written a review on either a hotel, restaurant or attraction in the featured cities during 2012, with the majority of surveys sent to travellers and the remainder to locals. Survey was carried out on 75,000 travellers from 12^th November to 26^th November 2012.

To be included in the results, a city had a minimum of 300 completed responses, with the ranking based on average scores for each question.  All analysis was conducted by Brainbox Research.  The selection of featured cities is based on the key cities from countries which receive the largest number of international visitor arrivals (data compiled by the UNWTO 2010).