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LONDON FAILS TO WOW DESPITE TRIUMPH OF ‘JUBILYMPICS’ YEAR
Capital falls flat on friendliness but ranks highly for taxi services and shopping

TripAdvisor®, the world's largest travel site*, reveals the results of its Cities Survey, an in-depth look into how travellers and locals view 40 key tourist cities around the world – and London doesn’t fare well.

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 35th 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 (5th), Hong Kong (6th) and Paris (11th). 

“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 12th November to 26th 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).