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We didn’t need a global report to tell us that Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but it’s always good to have some cred behind our claims. In a new eye-tracking study by hotel chain Premier Inn, the Harbour City has been crowned the third most beautiful summer city in the world. We could have told you that Sydney looks pretty spectacular in the summer months (we're counting down the days), but it’s nice to have the science to back us up.
In the recently-dropped report, Sydney scored 85.6 out of 100, putting it behind only Banff in Canada (96.0) and Mykonos in Greece (87.3) in the global ranking of 63 cities. We’ll be honest, it’s not exactly a controversial result. Sydney’s combination of glittering harbour, golden beaches and instantly recognisable landmarks gives it a bit of a visual cheat code – particularly in summer, when the city’s outdoor lifestyle is in full swing. The Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge provide the postcard-perfect backdrop, and countless gorgeous beaches are just a ferry ride, bus trip or coastal walk away.
So how were the most beautiful summer cities confirmed? Rather than relying on a panel of travel experts to pick the prettiest places, the data people at Premier Inn used eye-tracking technology to measure which destinations actually caught people’s attention. The Premier Inn team compiled a list of 63 cities from around the world using desk research, before showing a series of summer images of those destinations to a sample of 200 people. Eye-tracking software then recorded two things: the average amount of time it took participants to first look at an image – known as the average time to first fixation – and the average amount of time they subsequently spent looking at it. Those results were fed into a weighted scoring system and converted into an overall score out of 100. The cities were then ranked according to their scores, with the idea being that the destinations that grabbed and held people’s attention for the longest were also the most ‘eye-catching’ – and therefore the most beautiful.
There are a few caveats, of course. The study measured people’s reactions to photographs of cities, rather than the cities themselves, and the sample size was relatively small at 200 participants. It also doesn’t appear to account for factors such as weather, architecture, culture or personal taste beyond what can be captured by visual attention. Still, we’ll happily accept the result.
Sydney was the highest-ranked city in Oceania, beating Auckland (ninth), Queenstown (11th) and Wellington (13th). It also placed ahead of some pretty stiff global competition, including Paris (12th), Los Angeles (10th) and Kyoto (seventh).
The full top five was rounded out by Bruges in Belgium (84.1) and Bristol in the UK (83.7), while Europe dominated the wider ranking, with eight of the top 15 cities located on the continent.
You can check out the full list (and plan your summer travels accordingly) over here.