People want to visit cities today. World Travel Monitor reported that city trips rose by 82 percent from 2007 through 2014. City trips by that year accounted for 22 percent of all global holidays.
But what cities are the most deserving of your vacation dollars? And what cities tend to attract the most visitors, something that provides a big boost to a metro area’s restaurants, attractions, pubs and shops?
Resonance Consultancy, a global advisor on tourism, attempted to answer these questions when it put together its newest list, The World’s Best Cities of 2017.
The good news for commercial real estate professionals here? The Midwest’s largest city, Chicago, ranked highly on the list, earning its 10th spot, the only Midwest city to rank in the top 10.
Resonance ranked cities by surveying what it calls “Mobile Millennials,” U.S. residents from the ages of 20 to 36 who have traveled in the past year. Resonance asked these Millennials what they looked for when choosing a city in which to live or visit.
After survying more than 1,500 of these Millennials, Resonance found 23 factors that mattered most. These included housing affordability and job opportunities; quality of key institutions, infrastructure and attractions; quality of the natural and built environment; diversity of residents; economic prosperity; and quality of the arts, culture, restaurants and nightlife.
Based on these factors, Resonance ranked London as the world’s top city, followed by New York City, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo. Next came Singapore, Dubai, Barcelona, San Franciso and then Chicago.
What got Chicago on the list? Resonance pointed to the city’s cultural scene and robust infrastructure. Chicago ranked high, too, in local university rankings and for its stunning architecture. The city’s restaurant scene scored high marks, with Resonance specifically citing new eateries such as Kitsune Restaurant and Pub and Bad Hunter. It also pointed to the Revival Food Hall, a 24,000-square-foot marketplace in the Loop that brings together vendors serving everything from Hawaiian poke to unusual varieties of deep-dish pizza.
The rest of the Midwest didn’t make much of an impact on Resonance’s list. Minneapolis did earn a spot on the company’s list of the 100 best cities in the world, coming in at a solid 49th place. Nashville earned a spot at number 82, while Columbus came in at 95 and St. Louis at 96.
