New York City named best city in US

New York

DRUM roll, please: In a just-released ranking of the best cities in America, the decisive winner is the love-it-or-hate-it, 20-million-strong metropolis of New York.

That is according to Resonance Consultancy, a 10-year-old firm at the forefront of the US$4.2 billion "destination branding" industry. To produce the rankings - now in their second year - the company collects troves of objective public data on big and small cities from coast to coast, focusing on 27 criteria that include crime rates, air quality, housing affordability, entertainment offerings, cultural diversity and economic vitality.

Then it adds subjective opinions that reveal a city's public perception, based on a 1,000-person Ipsos poll and sentiment analysis of digital channels such as TripAdvisor and Instagram. The result may be the most comprehensive study of its kind - it identifies cities that are most desirable for locals, visitors and businesspeople alike, rather than simply looking at livability or tourism appeal.

Winning in all three arenas, said Resonance president Chris Fair, is not just a bragging right; it is a way to court the economic benefits of foreign investment and visitation.  "As consultants, we're analysing the difference between people's perceptions of a city and what that city actually has to offer," he explained. "Sometimes, perception is ahead of performance. Sometimes, it's the other way." And for the ones that get both product and perception just right? Those, he said, are America's best cities.

 Excellent culture and nightlife catapulted New York to the top of the heap. In both categories, the city ranked first out of 50 large US hubs. It also earned top marks for neighbourhoods and landmarks - a metric that the city's tourism board has recently used as a basis for tourism-marketing campaigns - as well as excellent mobility, New York's never-ending subway issues aside.

In ranking order, the top 10 big cities (and their lead attributes) were: New York (culture, nightlife) Chicago (conventions, nightlife) Los Angeles (social media clout, diversity) San Francisco (household income, educational attainment) Las Vegas (attractions, culture) San Diego (quality of natural and built environments, household income) Houston (restaurants, number of Fortune 500 companies) Miami (diversity, quality of natural and built environments) Seattle (educational attainment, household income) Boston (quality of natural and built environments, safety).

Where small cities - those with a population under 200,000 - are concerned, Honolulu leads the pack. That is largely thanks to its natural beauty. The city's top scores came in the Instagram mentions, and parks and outdoor activities categories.

In descending order, runners-up included Omaha, Nebraska; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Charleston, South Carolina and El Paso, Texas. 

The factors that most influence perception of a city are shifting, said Mr Fair. Traditional concerns such as availability of resources, commute times and access to transportation are becoming less important as local economies evolve from being manufacturing-based to being digitally and service-oriented.

"Having excellent neighbourhoods and landmarks on TripAdvisor - lots of places that rank 8.0 or higher - is correlated with foreign visitors and investment," Mr Fair said, explaining that Resonance uses foreign investment (rather than overall) as a benchmark for comparing the global attractiveness of cities.

"Entertainment, culinary offerings and so on - they speak to the vibrancy of a city and determine where talent, tourism, and investment are going."

None of this should come as a surprise. More curious are the effects of having a local sports team and a frequently used geotag on Instagram and Facebook; Mr Fair said that both are strongly associated with foreign direct investment - to the surprise of most of the economic development officers whom he consulted.

Destination marketing and branding is fast-growing business. In 2010, the World Travel and Tourism Council estimated that US$368 billion was spent globally on destination marketing; by 2016, that number had shot up to an estimated US$413 billion.

"By 2020, the travel industry will be a US$7 trillion business, globally," explained Clayton Reid, chief executive of MMGY Global, a Kansas City-based travel and destination branding company that has pulled in US$50 million in net revenue so far this year. "Cities and states are understanding how important tourism is as an economic lever," he added.

Of course, a city like New York might eventually decide that - like Venice, Italy; or Dubrovnik, Croatia - it could do with fewer crowds. That does not mean that destination branding is a bubble that is bound to pop. On the contrary, said MMGY's Mr Reid, "The right kind of data usage can drive much smarter tourism marketing, and it can help destinations connect supply and demand more effectively where over-tourism is an issue." The key, he said, is merchandising yourself to the right people who can visit your destination in the off season. BLOOMBERG