What, exactly, makes a city "welcoming?" According to TravelBird, factors that can make a city visitor feel welcome include citizens' level of happiness, "openness to host tourists and English language proficiency." In a new study ranking the most welcoming cities in the world, the website also took into account a recently conducted poll, "asking over 15,000 travel journalists how welcoming they found each city based on their personal experiences."
Here is the published ranking, from most to least welcoming city across the entire world:
1. Singapore, Singapore
2. Stockholm, Sweden
3. Helsinki, Finland
4. San Francisco, United States of America
5. Rotterdam, Netherlands
6. Lisbon, Portugal
7. Tokyo, Japan
8. Oslo, Norway
9. Zurich, Switzerland
10. Orlando, United States of America
Be proud, fellow Americans! We are the only country who appears in the top ten not once, but twice. With San Francisco at number three and Orlando at number ten, we might start considering ourselves the world's most welcoming... country?
A disclaimer, according to the site itself: Given the methodology used to come up with the ranking, "This research highlights a precise selection of popular cities around the world in order to give an international overview, meaning there are undoubtedly many welcoming cities not included in this study."