Which city inspires the greatest desire to travel? This question is explored by the "Global Tourism City Attractiveness Index 2026". Unlike many traditional city rankings, this survey doesn't primarily evaluate visitor numbers, hotel capacities, or the like. Rather, it examined how frequently and how positively people talked about 261 selected locations on social media. The top 200 were ultimately selected for the ranking.
For the index, social media data in 14 languages as well as 419 terms from the areas of city and landscape appearance, culture and history, tourist experiences, and hospitality were evaluated. These experiences for tourists include shopping options, nightlife, sporting activities, festivals or events, and much more.
The ranking was developed by the South Korean company Yanolja Research together with the CHRIBA Institute of Purdue University and the H&T Analytics Center of Kyung Hee University. The period covered is from June 2025 to May 2026.
What's striking is that only three European metropolises make it into the top ten. Asia, on the other hand, is represented five times. In the top 100, there are also only two German metropolises: Berlin barely makes it to overall rank 41, Munich lands at 60.
From Chicago to London
Chicago lands in tenth place and scores particularly well with its distinctive architecture and the nature around the metropolis as well as with tourist offerings. The Japanese region of Okinawa also performs well at rank nine, though it could apparently improve in the area of culture and history in terms of social media.
Magnificent temples and lively markets attract visitors to Bangkok, Thailand, which at rank eight particularly stands out in experiences. In Rome, Italy, at number seven, it's the cultural and historical offerings that fascinate people exceptionally strongly. At rank six, it looks similar in London, Britain.
On to Seoul and New York City
Seoul captures fifth place, just like last year. The South Korean capital combines modern and traditional architecture with street food and internationally successful pop culture in an incomparable way. In the ranking, the areas of hospitality and tourist offerings particularly stand out. Japanese Kyoto also scores at fourth place with hospitality. Here, however, the biggest social media drivers are culture and history.
Bronze in the ranking also goes to Japan. At number three, people associate Osaka with tourist possibilities and hospitality, similar to Seoul. Paris lands at the silver rank as the best European city. The French metropolis is unbeaten in the area of culture and history.
The big winner compared to last year and overall winner of the survey is New York City. The Big Apple improves from rank four to number one. Even though the U.S. metropolis - at least according to the examined social media posts - performs worse than Paris in culture, it shows itself as the top leader in all three other areas.
