Toronto is Canada’s most welcoming city and is the top 15 in the world, according to a new study by TravelBird.
With the United Nations celebrating World Cities Day today (Oct.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.
Surprisingly, London was down at 29th overall. Sydney, Australia was way down at 55.
No Canadian city other than Toronto cracked the top 100, which seems odd.
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.”
Meanwhile, a study from Expedia.ca finds that Quebecers feel more vacation-deprived than other Canadians.
This year more than half of Canadians (53%) consider themselves vacation deprived, indicating that as a nation, we are achieving some form of work life balance; however, there is always opportunity for improvement, Expedia officials said.
Fifty three per cent of Canadians feel they’re vacation deprived, says a study from Expedia.ca.
The study revealed that 58% of Quebec residents feel vacation deprived, compared to just 45% of folks in laid-back British Columbia.
On a global scale, Canada ranked around the tenth most vacation deprived country, with South Korea ranking as the most vacation deprived and Norway as the least.
Almost seventy per cent of Canadians (67%) felt they deserved more vacation days than given.
While they are not willing to relocate for more vacation, Canadians are willing to sacrifice every day comforts for their vacation, with 59% stating they would give up alcohol for an extra day off, 50% willing to give up social media and 25% happy to set down their smartphones.
