In news that will come as a shock to all Londoners who have been perfecting their resting [bleep] face, the UK capital has just been named the most welcoming city for tourists in Europe.
That’s according to eSIM provider Holafly, which looked at 200 cities worldwide and evaluated them based on safety, visa openness, tourism and information services, and English proficiency levels among residents.
London came out second overall. The UK as a whole is among the most welcoming countries worldwide, with Edinburgh coming out 11th in the ranking.
Just two other countries in Europe had two cities in the top 20: Denmark, with Copenhagen (ninth) and Aarhus (10th), and Czechia, with Prague (16th) and Brno (20th).
That’s not enough to claim the title of most welcoming country overall, though, as Canada had three cities in the top 20 – Ottawa (14th), Toronto (18th) and Montreal (19th).
Globally, the most welcoming city was Singapore.
The Asian city-state claimed the top spot due to its safety score of 77.7 on Numbeo, a visa openness score of 164 on the Henley Openness Index, and because of the number of tourism and information assistance points across the country (41).
The world’s most welcoming cities
- Singapore
- London, UK
- Sydney, Australia
- New York City, New York, USA
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Penang Island, Malaysia
- The Hague, Netherlands
- Hong Kong
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Aarhus, Denmark
- Edinburgh, UK
- Utrecht, Netherlands
- Davao City, Philippines
- Ottawa, Canada
- Melbourne, Australia
- Prague, Czechia
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Toronto, Canada
- Montreal, Canada
- Brno, Czechia