Every two years, the GfK research institute draws up the ranking of cities based on their “overall positive image”. The list was recently published : Paris is number 1, ahead of London and New York.
New York ranked on the podium at the expense of Sydney, Australia. Even better, the Big Apple takes the 2nd place, behind Paris but ahead of London, for the large number of interesting activities that you can do there.
Here is the complete ranking with the rank of each city in 2014:
- 1/ Paris (3)
- 2/ London (1)
- 3/ New York (4)
- 4/ Sydney (2)
- 5/ Los Angeles (7)
- 6/ Rome (5)
- 7/ Berlin (12)
- 8/ Amsterdam (11)
- 9/ Melbourne (10)
- 10/ Washington DC (6)
Note the nice progression of Los Angeles. The californian city gained two places and reached the fifth position, before Rome. On the contrary, Washington is not going so well: the capital of the United States falls from 6th to 10th position.
The study focuses on the strength and attractiveness of each city, through a broad set of indicators that include the city’s international status, its physical outdoors aspect and transport, its activities, friendliness of the people living there, security and the economic and educational opportunities available.
The creator of the GfK City Brands Index, Simon Anholt, says that “the survey was conducted before the November attacks in Paris – but, if past experience is anything to go by, such attacks do not change people’s perceptions of the city in any significant or long-lasting way.”
