Destinations knownBooking.com has named the world’s 10 most welcoming cities, places it says are iconic, stunning, enchanting etc. We’ll have to take their word for it
- Rest assured you won’t find overcrowded Venice or Kyoto on Booking.com’s The 10 Most Welcoming Cities on Earth for 2024 list – most are off the beaten track
- Its methodology is questionable and, from a ‘stunning’ gateway to Mount Fuji to a Swiss alpine ‘haven’, it goes overboard on the clichés to lend them appeal
There are few things more appreciated by a stranger in a strange land than a warm welcome. And it’s unlikely you’ll get one from all quarters in Kyoto, Venice, Amsterdam, Seville (where the mayor is planning to introduce a fee to enter the iconic but worn out Plaza de España, the latest in a series of tourism-dampening measures across Europe) or other cities struggling with overtourism.
National capitals can appear coldly indifferent to the visiting tourist, too, so we were interested to see a recent survey from Booking.com revealing what the travel marketplace considers the “world’s most welcoming cities”.
And how does Booking.com assess such a quality? Well, we were a little disappointed to discover it simply sorted destinations by their share of Traveller Review Award 2024 recipients as a proportion of the number of accommodation options in that city. The list was then curated for geographic spread, to produce a Top 10 (which isn’t really).
Still, we can’t think of a better way of assessing something as nebulous as a welcome, and presumably many of the people who left positive reviews would have been happy with the overall vibe of the city as well as their digs – so perhaps there is some merit to the list.
Another plus is that Destinations Known hasn’t been to any of the cities – well, towns mostly – listed. None; and some, we’re ashamed to admit, we couldn’t even point to on a map. And that’s perhaps illustrative in itself; you have to go well off the beaten track to find the warmest of welcomes.