[Kayacterype]

July 10, 2008 - 10:23AM

www.theage.com.au

Australia has again been rated a tourist hotspot by US travellers, with Sydney voted fourth best city in the world in a new magazine survey.

US travel magazine Travel + Leisure released the results of its World's Best Awards today, with Bangkok taking out the top spot on the World's Best City list.

Buenos Aires and Cape Town were voted second and third, while Sydney came in fourth after being ranked fifth last year.

This year, fifth place went to Florence.


Sydney was also named the best city in the awards for the Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific region, followed by Melbourne, New Zealand's Queenstown, Perth and Hobart.

Tasmania made the World's Best Island category, finishing fifth on a list topped by the Galapagos Islands.

Singapore Airlines was voted number one, followed by Emirates, Thai Airways and Cathay Pacific.

TOP 10 CITIES OVERALL:
1 Bangkok, Thailand 87.61
2 Buenos Aires, Argentina 87.24
3 Cape Town, South Africa 86.59
4 Sydney, Australia 86.49
5 Florence, Italy 86.24
6 Cuzco, Peru 86.15
7 Rome, Italy 85.12
8 New York, US 85.03
9 Istanbul, Turkey 84.61
10 San Francisco, US 84.42

TOP 5 AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC:
1 Sydney 86.49
2 Melbourne 80.35
3 Queenstown. New Zealand 79.95
4 Perth 77.78
5 Hobart 77.38

TOP 10 ASIA:
1 Bangkok, Thailand 87.61
2 Kyoto, Japan 84.27
3 Chiang Mai, Thailand 84.14
4 Hong Kong 83.69
5 Udaipur, India 83.51
6 Shanghai, China 81.83
7 Siem Reap, Cambodia 81.15
8 Beijing, China 81.05
9 Hanoi, Vietnam 80.87
10 Jaipur, India 80.78

[nAKMzyBN]

I dug up the methodology used for the survey at the bottom of the article at
http://www.travelandleisure.com/worl...2008/index.cfm

A questionnaire developed by the editors of Travel + Leisure, in association with Harris Interactive, was made available to Travel + Leisure subscribers at tlworldsbest.com from January 16, 2008, to March 22, 2008. In the February and March 2008 issues of Travel + Leisure, subscribers were invited to participate. A select group of subscribers also received an invitation via e-mail. Travel + Leisure subscribers were asked to enter their complete name (as it appears on their mailing label), as well as their five-digit ZIP code, at tlworldsbest.com before completing the survey. Only those responses from subscribers whose personal information entered at tlworldsbest.com exactly matched Travel + Leisure’s subscriber file were counted in the final tally. Respondents were permitted to complete the survey only once. To protect the integrity of the data, after March 22, 2008, respondents were screened by Travel + Leisure and responses from any identified travel-industry professionals who completed the survey were eliminated from the final tally. The survey website, tlworldsbest.com, was maintained, monitored, and kept secure by Harris Interactive, which collected and tabulated the responses and kept them confidential.
The scores are indexed averages of responses concerning applicable characteristics. Respondents were required to rate hotels, islands, airlines, destination spas, and rental-car agencies on five characteristics; cities, cruise lines, and tour operators and safari outfitters on six characteristics; and hotel spas on four characteristics (see below). In the "hotel" category, respondents could also rate properties on additional optional characteristics; these ratings were not included in final scores. For each characteristic, respondents were asked to rate a candidate on a scale of 1 to 5, where "5" means excellent and "1" means poor. Required ratings were then averaged, creating an overall score. A minimum number of responses was necessary for a candidate to be eligible for inclusion in the World’s Best Awards listings. Some companies were rated in both the "cruise lines" and "tour operators and safari outfitters" categories, and some properties were rated in both the "destination spas" and "hotel spas" categories. In both cases, companies and properties have different scores for each category.
These were the categories and characteristics:

• For hotels: rooms/facilities, location, service, restaurants/food, value. Optional: for business, for families.
• For destination spas: accommodations/ambience, treatments, service, food, value.
• For hotel spas: ambience, treatments, service, value.
• For cities: sights, culture/arts, restaurants/food, people, shopping, value.
• For islands: natural attractions, activities/sights, restaurants/food, people, value.
• For cruise lines: cabins, food, service, itineraries/destinations, activities, value.
• For tour operators and safari outfitters: staff/guides, itineraries/destinations, activities, accommodations, food, value.
• For airlines: cabin comfort, food, in-flight service, customer service, value.
• For rental-car agencies: vehicle selection, vehicle availability, car rental location, service, value.

You can see the full list of 100 hotels here: http://reservethaihotels.net/

[Frjrbefd]

Great choice, I've been to a few cities in the world, not much, but Bangkok is still my favorite (even with all the scammers lol).

[nAKMzyBN]

3 hotels in Thailand placed in the top 20 of the Worlds Best 100 Hotels category of the same survey.
The Peninsula Bangkok, The Oriental Bangkok and the Four Seasons Chiang Mai.
Although I doubt I'll be able to afford to stay at the Four Seasons, I'd like to try the Oriental for sure.

Has anybody stayed at these hotels.
What about any suggestions for hotels that are better than these that weren't listed in the top 100?

[wbondarmunw]

There are so many Surveys......
This from Trip Advisor

TripAdvisor - 2008

TOP 100 DESTINATIONS World
1 Milford Sound, New Zealand
2 Queenstown, New Zealand
3 Philipsburg, St. Maarten
4 Cayo Largo, Cuba
5 Rhodes, Greece
6 Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
7 Cruz Bay, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands
8 Bridgetown, Barbados
9 Banff Alberta, Canada
10 Lake Tahoe, California, United States
11 Salzburg, Austria
12 Cape Town, South Africa
13 Amalfi, Italy
14 Bath, England
15 Siena, Italy
16 Victoria British Columbia, Canada
17 Hamilton, Bermuda
18 Dingle, Ireland
19 Lake Louise, Alberta Canada
20 Bruges, Belgium
*
42 Galway, Ireland
*
*
82 Ko Phi Phi Don, Thailand
*
85 Killarney, Ireland

[NutChusty]

Well I have always liked London as well, but it's not on the list, possibly because of the ridicules costs.

[themsrsdude]

3 hotels in Thailand placed in the top 20 of the Worlds Best 100 Hotels category of the same survey.
The Peninsula Bangkok, The Oriental Bangkok and the Four Seasons Chiang Mai.
Although I doubt I'll be able to afford to stay at the Four Seasons, I'd like to try the Oriental for sure.

Has anybody stayed at these hotels.
What about any suggestions for hotels that are better than these that weren't listed in the top 100?

Did it mention what the criteria was?

[imporesweemo]

Interesting ranking! I think Bangkok deserves the top position as it has so much to offer for tourists. One of my favourite cities in the world indeed!

[Twendypreency]

I think the criteria question is an interesting point. Those lists are so vastly different in kinds of locations/destinations, too. The trip advisor list seems to be focused on relaxing vacations... there could be a list made for every mood!