Asian Destinations Dominate Euromonitor’s International Ranking: The widely publicized and cited Top 100 City Destinations, 2019 edition, which was recently released by Euromonitor International, has New York City falling out of the Top 10 Cities (destinations) worldwide. It is now Number 11. This fact was emphasized in most of the coverage of the release; however, a closer reading of the list will show another fact: There has been a general strengthening of the position of Asian cities across the Top 100, as well as in the Top 10. In fact, 43 of the top 100 cities are in the Americas; 43 are in Asia, while just 13 are in the Americas. (See explanation of report’s methodology at end of article. *)

In slightly changing the tabular format used by Euromonitor in its presentation of the list, INBOUND has assembled a Top 15 list which shows that almost 7 cities from Asia are included. No other regional market comes close.

The current ranking used by INBOUND differs slightly from that of Euromonitor because rank is based on 2019 data that are estimated arrivals figures based on part-year data—not on actual arrival figures for 2018. Euromonitor international includes over 400 cities in its research.

Meanwhile, back in the USA: Following are the figures from the Top 100 for the Top Ten Cities of the Americas. One will see that, based on the downward change in rank (despite increases in annual visitor counts) most of the top cities of the Americas—despite increases in annual visitor counts—are falling behind as Asian cities grow stronger.

* Methodology and Definitions: Euromonitor International’s city arrivals research covers over 400 cities. The report highlights the top 100 cities based on 2018 international arrivals. International arrivals by city includes visitors from abroad who arrive at the city under review as their first point of entry, also including visitors to the city who arrived in the country via a different point of entry, but then go on to visit the city in question during their trip.

Arrivals are defined as international tourists, i.e. any person visiting another country for at least 24 hours, for a period not exceeding 12 months, and staying in paid or unpaid, collective or private accommodation. Each arrival is counted separately and includes people travelling more than once a year and people visiting several cities during one trip. Arrivals encompasses all purposes of visit, such as business, leisure and visiting friends and relatives.

Arrivals excludes domestic visitors, same-day visitors, people in transit and cruise passengers as this can distort arrivals figures at important border crossings and cruise destinations, respectively. It also excludes those in paid employment abroad. Students that stay in a country for a period of more than 12 months are excluded and are considered as temporary residents. Military personnel and transportation crew are excluded, along with displaced people because of war or natural disasters. The ranking focuses on city hubs and tends to exclude beach and ski resorts that may enjoy high volumes of international visitors.

The ranking tables in the complete white paper provide 2017, 2018 and forecast 2019 arrivals data, as well as rank movements. 2013–18 rank movement indicates the change in rank between 2013 and 2018 of each city based on the arrivals in 2013 and 2018. 2018–19 rank movement indicates the change in rank between 2018 and 2019, where 2019 data is an estimated arrivals figure based on part-year data. The cities included in the current Top 100 ranking might not have been or will not be in the ranking in 2013 or 2018.

Ranking in the top spot as the best U.S. state for outdoor enthusiasts is … California! Hawaii also came in at a strong second place. Here are the top 10 states in the ranking by Rickshaw Travel—a UK-based tour company that focuses on adventure and outdoors travel. It rates the United States as an outstanding destination and especially likes the United States and its scenic outdoors and, in particular, it seems, its national parks. The top 10 states are: California; Hawaii; Washington; Vermont; Oregon; Alaska; South Dakota; New Hampshire; Idaho; and Montana.

Rickshaw came out with its index and ranking in what is a de facto celebration of the U.S. For the index,  the company scored each state on the following categories: National parks; wildlife biodiversity; natural beauty; carbon dioxide emissions; greenest states; and ir quality. Using these categories, the Rickshaw team established an overall Great American Outdoors score by scoring each state out of 5 across the elements and totaling this together, allowing for the highest available score of 35. (Analysts used seven different information sources in its review.)

The Carbon Dioxide Emissions score was first assigned a ranking which was then scored out of 5, as the highest level was far above the average across the states. If there was a tie in the total score, we used the greenest states score as the determining ranking factor.

Here is what the factors look like in a color scheme:

Following are the complete index scores of the 50 U.S. States

Finally, what the USA states look like according to the Great American Outdoors Index:

There is more commentary on why some of the states scored so well (“California soared to the top with nine national parks across the entire state, which was more than anywhere else in the U.S. It’s also home to a staggering 6,717 different species of native plants and animals.”), as well as a brief slide show here.

Or the Japanese—They’re Nice, too, say Americans: A new report tells us that Americans are smitten with Canada and Canadian visitors. They really, really like their neighbors to the North. This finding and others, from a report put out by us.jetcost.com, are based on a survey in which U.S. residents were asked what visitors to the U.S. they found to be the most friendly. (A note: there wasn’t much in the way of an explanation of methodology used to get the numbers that follow, except that more than 4,200 Americans took part in the survey. All respondents said that they have been on vacation abroad at least once in the last two years themselves.)

Asked what it was specifically about tourists that irritated the locals in their hometowns, the most annoying traits were as follows:

The study didn’t indicate any reasons, but a majority of Americans in the survey said the British are the most annoying tourists, with 31 percent of respondents naming them as the worst. Next were Germans (16 percent) and Brazilians (13 percent)

—Three-fifths of Americans that regularly come into contact with tourists find them irritating. The study also found that

—73 percent of Americans admit that they avoid fellow Americans when on vacation.

—Initially, two fifths of respondents that were questioned (41 percent) revealed that they lived in an area where they were in regular contact with tourists. Of these, 62 percent said that they became regularly irritated with the visitors.

—More than half of Americans (53 percent) revealed that they always try to befriend the locals when they are on vacation, while a quarter (24 percent) prefer to keep to themselves.