The world’s top cities

Ipsos Top Cities Index

Ipsos MORI’s “Top Cities” survey finds New York, London and Paris as clear winners when people around the globe were asked their views on the world’s best cities. The Cities Index is based on a combined score of the percentage singling out that city as one of the three best places (a) for business (b) to live and (c) to visit.

This unique survey also provides a series of “national viewpoints” in the form of the perspectives of each of the 24 countries covered in the survey. Here are the Top 5 cities according to the British public:

Other headlines include:

Across the world, Paris does very well, ranked equal 2^nd overall.  It is rated the top place to visit by 13 of the 24 countries covered.  But Paris falls down as a place to “do business” – even in France it is only ranked 5^th.

London also does very well in the survey, placed 2^nd alongside Paris.  But it achieves relatively weak scores from China. The online Chinese public place it 9^th as a city to do business (they rate New York 1^st).  And London comes in 7^th as a place to visit, with Paris being the destination of choice for Chinese consumers

The German public see Berlin as No 2 for business and No 1 as a place to live.  But they look further afield when they think about where they want to visit: Berlin doesn’t even make the German top 10; Sydney is top.

On-line Indian consumers give their highest scores to Singapore, with Mumbai (and London) doing well

In Spain, where 4% say the economy is in “good” shape, Madrid fails to make the top 10 overall, while the Spanish public are keen to move to northern Europe: their 3 top places to live are Stockholm, Zurich and Berlin.

In Italy, Rome fares little better – in 9^th place overall.  Italians also show an interest in living in Zurich and Berlin (as well as Sydney)

Russians see Moscow as somewhere to do business – it comes out as their top world city as a place to work.  But they look elsewhere when they think about where they want to live or visit (Paris wins on both counts, with Moscow not even making the top 10).  If President Putin plans a “visit Moscow” campaign, he may need to start at home

The Japanese public LOVE Tokyo – it is number 1 on all categories.  And the same pattern is evident in Turkey, where Istanbul comes out number 1. (Fieldwork was conducted before the recent protests)

新华网香港９月６日电 市场研究公司益普索（Ｉｐｓｏｓ）日前公布全球最受欢迎城市排行榜，香港排第八位，而美国纽约从全球４８个主要城市中脱颖而出，位居榜首；新加坡和北京分别排第十三和第十五位。

据香港媒体报道，益普索进行史上最大规模的同类型调查，于今年２月在网上访问超过１．８万名来自２４个国家的成年居民，要求他们从全球４８个主要城市中选出最佳营商、居住和最想到访的城市，每个城市最后得分是３个类别的总和。

结果显示，纽约在３个范畴的总分为６８％，成为最受欢迎城市。益普索总裁佩奇表示，纽约明显领先，英国伦敦和法国巴黎成为双亚军。跻身第四位的阿布扎比，在旅游方面一直屈居迪拜之下，不过当地正计划打造为世界级文化中心，罗浮宫博物馆分馆预计２０１５年开幕。

在分类别中，纽约成为全球受访者心目中最佳营商城市，阿布扎比和香港分别排第二及第三位。最佳居住城市三甲分别是瑞士苏黎世、澳洲悉尼和伦敦；而最想旅游城市首三位是巴黎、纽约和意大利罗马。

益普索于１９７５年成立于法国巴黎，是一家由研究专业人士拥有并管理的市场研究集团。

Forget sipping a glass of wine on the terrace of the Opera House beside Sydney Harbour – an online poll reveals that the world’s travellers would much rather be drinking orange juice on the Corniche in Abu Dhabi.

The market-research organisation, Ipsos, has conducted its first poll to find “The World’s Favourite City”. In February, over 18,000 “global citizens” in 24 countries were asked to rate cities as places to do business in, to live in, and to visit.

New York beat London and Paris to the overall top spot. Ben Page, chief executive of Ipsos, revealed the results of the poll at the Foreign Press Association in London. He said: “There are a handful of ‘superbrand’ cities. New York is the clear leader, but London and Paris, in joint second place, do very well indeed.”

Mr Page described Zurich as “the surprise star,” saying that Switzerland’s largest city is “The place the world’s public would most like to live”.

Sydney was soundly beaten into fifth place by Abu Dhabi. Destination New South Wales, which promotes Sydney worldwide, refused to comment on the results of the survey. Hong Kong, Singapore and Amsterdam also lagged well behind the UAE capital.

In tourism terms, Abu Dhabi has long been in the shadow of the neighbouring emirate, Dubai. Abu Dhabi has four flights a day from London, while Dubai has 14. In Lonely Planet’s 224-page Dubai & Abu Dhabi guide, only seven pages are devoted to the latter. However, Abu Dhabi is planning a world-class cultural hub, with a branch of the Louvre expected to open 2015. It will be followed soon afterwards by the inauguration of a Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.

Saudi Arabia’s votes were critical to the success of Abu Dhabi, with the strongest showing for any city in the survey. But there was also support for the UAE capital from surprising quarters.

Brazilians preferred Abu Dhabi to Rio, and said they would rather visit the Gulf city than London or Los Angeles. Spanish people would rather live in Abu Dhabi than Madrid. And Abu Dhabi is rated as the world’s top city by more than twice as many Italians as voted for Rome.

British respondents in the survey expressed a preference for living in Abu Dhabi ahead of both Paris and Los Angeles.

The Foreign Office points out that the UAE is a conservative nation, with some “serious penalties for doing something that might not be illegal in the UK”. Punishable offences include homosexuality, sex outside marriage and public displays of affection. The FCO says: “There have been several arrests for kissing in public”.

Studying the voting pattern from individual countries in the Ipsos survey reveals an element of Eurovision-style block voting, combined with national pride.

Indonesians voted overwhelmingly for neighbouring Singapore. According to the Japanese, the best cities to live in are Tokyo and Osaka. Australians and Canadians voted strongly for Sydney and Toronto respectively. The French did much the same for Paris, though they conceded that London is a far better city in which to do business.

British voters rated New York, London and Sydney as the top three cities.

Ipsos’ singling out of “The World’s Least-Popular Cities” is also controversial. Mr Page said: “Across the 24 countries covered, Karachi gets nil points, with Tehran, Tel Aviv and Warsaw barely troubling the scorer”. Budapest, Brussels and Moscow were also poorly placed.

The Ipsos study is the second awards listing in a week to raise eyebrows in the travel industry. The short list for “Europe’s Leading Destination” at the World Travel Awards included Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris and Venice. On Saturday, when the results were announced, first prize went to Yorkshire.

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, told BBC Look North: “It gives us great profile. Next year, with the Tour de France coming to Yorkshire, we will be the centre of Europe.”

The readers of Wanderlust, the magazine for independent travellers, gave a very different top three in the most recent awards. Kyoto in Japan was third, with Cusco in Peru second. The winner was the small Vietnamese city of Hoi An. The most successful big city was New York, in seventh place.