World's best cities announced - there's a handful of UK hotspots named in elite
The best cities in the world have been ranked - with a handful of UK cultural hotspots ranked among the elite.
More than 50 per cent of the locations making the top 10 of the World's Best Cities rankings were in Europe, with New York, Tokyo, Dubai and Singapore also making the cut.
The rankings, which are compiled by real estate and tourism consultancy firm Resonance, look at six different categories: place, product, programming, people, prosperity and promotion.
They are more focused on financial and business factors, such as the number of large tech firms in a given city, than other more holiday centred rankings.
The UK's capital of 11million people, London, took the top spot, being praised for its amazing restaurants, being a hit on social media as the 'hashtag capital of the world', and having a huge amount of luxury properties that attract the mega-rich.
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Our friends across the Channel trailed closely behind at number two, with Paris hailed for attacking the pandemic with doctors, vaccinations and large-scale city renovations.
Paris came second in the rankings (Getty Images/iStockphoto)These included an "aggressive empowerment of self-propelled mobility" which included a city-wide speed limit of 30km per hour and an "obsessive" laying down of hundreds of miles of bike parks.
"It's the citizenry’s embrace of this boldness that is changing the city’s fabric for good," the firm adds.
Next up was the US east coast hub of New York - dubbed "the greatest city in America" - which is being reborn after a hellish two years due to the Covid pandemic, the description adds.
"It was a ghastly reminder during the pandemic of the vulnerability of even the colossal and seemingly all-powerful; we saw here what awaited the rest of the country. And the world. As early cases spiked, Gotham became the nation’s nightmarish coronavirus core," the site reads.
New York, which suffered through the pandemic, came third (Getty Images)The city's complete and sudden decline "landed in the crosshairs of the sniping haters" who declared "the big, vibrant, cheek-by-jowl city experiment was finally over".
"But for resilient New Yorkers, those attacks of course merely steeled their resolve for better days amid the death, protest and malaise.
"Those better days are here. And the city is doing everything in its power to bring back not only apprehensive New Yorkers whose hunger for regular bites of the Big Apple [...].", the list adds.
At number four comes Asia's city of neon lights, Tokyo, also battered by the pandemic as well as"earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons". Japan's capital is coming back to life with its leaders steadfast in plans to welcome 60million tourists and drum up $136billion in tourist revenue before 2030.
Tokyo earned fourth place after coming first in shopping due to the opening of several luxury malls, and even the world's first Netflix shop (Getty Images/iStockphoto)It earned the top spot for its shopping and world-class experiences. The listmakers mentioned the Ginza luxury department stores at the "art-bedecked" and "sharply designed" Ginza Siz shopping centre.
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Another mall, the recently refurbished Miyashita Park "boasts 90 boutique shops and restaurants with a view of the famed Shibuys district, complete with volleyball courts and a skatepark sprawling over 2.5acres".
The world's first Netflix store popped up in Tokyo, with another two pop-ups dedicated to its show Stranger Things "added to the fun".
Dubai (5th), Barcelona (6th), Rome (7th), Madrid (8th), Singapore (9th) and Amsterdam (10th) all also made the top 10.
Rome also made the top 10 (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Further up the list, at number 77 comes Liverpool, described by the authors as "the city that helped win wars and change history is poise to tell its story again."
An "integral urban centre in world history" is mentioned as a must-visit, where the city's unique role in world history is documented "masterfully - and honestly".
The site reads: "The city’s role as a strategic British Empire trade port, responsible for half of Britain’s transatlantic slave trade, is laid bare at its International Slavery Museum.
"Its contribution to helping win both world wars by sending tens of thousands of Liverpudlians to fight (plus its own strategic location) is outlined in the Western Approaches Museum, housed in a hidden bunker under the city’s streets.
"But it was in its post-war decline that Liverpool made history once more when four local teenagers decided to jam together. Today, The Beatles Story is the world’s largest permanent exhibition purely devoted to telling the band’s tale."
Just a few places below Liverpool is Manchester at number 80.
Described as "the bucking engine of English industry", the list focuses on Manchester University being home to a "dazzling legacy of 25 Nobel laureates, several of them still on staff".
An aerial drone view of majestic buildings and rooftops in Barcelona, Spain (Getty Images/iStockphoto)"Manchester’s conversion from producing goods to ideas is well underway, and the history of the workers who made that possible is on grand display at the People’s History Museum," the listmakers say.
Glasgow, a "working-class city with working-class values", ranked among the Top 100 after scoring highly on the quality of its residents.
The Scottish city "highlights its success in bringing everyone along for the ride as its reputations grows".
Glasgow also performed well in the Nightlife subcategory for its gritty venues like the Sub Club, where "live shows dominate".
But beating its competitors in the top 10 was the Honorary Best City in the world, Kyiv, which was praised for the defiant resolve of its people in the face of a "murderous aggressor".
The site reads: "The historic Ukrainian capital is the urban beacon of courage and resilience leading a defiant nation against a murderous aggressor. It is, like the rest of Ukraine, a place of inexhaustible courage in the face of daily tragedy."
The listmakers say despite its constant bombardment, "Kyiv now looks surprisingly normal".
"That is, until recently, when over a few days in October, a wave of self-destructing Iranian-made drones launched by Russia started terrorizing the city’s skies and killing citizens," it adds.
Dubai, a city of skyscrapers, luxury shopping, and beachside relaxation, also made the top 10 (Getty Images/iStockphoto)But "remarkably, cinemas restaurants and theaters remain open; stylish young people drink their filter coffee with their dogs and laptops; during rush hour, traffic jams once again clog the city’s arteries.
"The city’s impressively deep subway—built at the height of the Cold War so it could serve as a bomb shelter—is once again doing what it does best: whisking people around for just eight hryvnia, or 20 cents, per ride."
Though pundits all over the world predicted Kyiv would fall in a number of days as "rockets rained on peaceful apartment blocks", they "never came close", it adds.
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