Top 10 most welcoming cities in the world: Canada is ABSENT and it’s surprising

Although Canada is known for its hospitality and its friendlythis reputation was not enough to make our country shine in a new world ranking. Indeed, none of our cities — not even Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver — have been deemed welcoming enough to be included in this famous top 10 for 2024.

Not the slightest Canadian locality has managed to stand out in the ranking of the most welcoming cities in the world according to the choice of readers of Condé Nast Traveler magazine (The friendliest cities in the world: 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards). A particularly striking contrast with last year, when Canadian cities largely dominated this list, occupying four of the first five places.

What could have changed? “While last year Canadian cities received the most votes, 2024 saw the spotlight move across the border to the United States, with New York, Chicago and Las Vegas all ranked in the top 10,” is briefly explained on the Condé Nast Traveler website.

Also read: This Montreal street has been named among the coolest in the world and we’re not convinced

What you need to know:By 2023, Calgary had risen to the top of this magazine’s ranking of the world’s friendliest cities, followed closely by Edmonton and Victoria, in second and third place, respectively. For its part, the city of Quebec occupied an honorable fifth place. But this year, Canadian cities were noticeably absent from the list.

Despite the absence of Canadian cities in the ranking, the country itself still ranked fifth among the most welcoming countries in the world in 2024, proving that Canada’s reputation for its hospitality is still alive and well, even if our cities don’t get as much attention.

The magazine’s readers’ choices are based on the votes of “thousands” of travelers from the United Kingdom, who rate the feeling of welcome they felt in each destination. According to the publication, the public takes into account several criteria, including the ease of getting around, the help provided by the local population as well as the general atmosphere in each city.

So who has overtaken us in 2024? Here are the top 10 most welcoming cities in the world this year:

1. Singapore (Southeast Asian city-state)
2. Sydney (Australie)
3. Las Vegas (United States)
4. Bangkok (Thailand)
5. Cape Town (South Africa)
6. Tokyo (Japan)
7. Marrakech (Morocco)
8. Hong Kong (Independent territory located in the South-East of China)
9. Chicago (United States)
10. New York (United States)

This article is adapted from “The world’s friendliest cities for 2024 were ranked and Canada has *checks notes* zero? ”, which was originally published on MTL Blog.