Is there a science behind what makes a city attractive to travellers? According to the latest research, the answer is a resounding yes. A new global ranking has not just looked at where people are travelling to, but which cities are capturing their attention and leaving the strongest emotional impressions.
The Global Tourism City Attractiveness Index for 2026 issued by Yanolja Research, in collaboration with Purdue University and Kyung Hee University, took a deep dive into social media conversations across 14 languages to rank 200 destinations.
Rather than focusing on usual tourism indicators, such as visitor numbers or hotel occupancy, the index measured two pillars: the “cognitive awareness” of destinations, which measured how visible, recognisable and “top of mind” destinations were within global travel discussions, and “affective attractiveness”, which assessed how memorable and enjoyable destinations were, as well as how keen travellers were to recommend them to others.
Researchers also analysed 419 travel-related words and phrases – such as mountain, hotel, street food and art gallery – which either fell into the urban aesthetics and natural scenery category, or culture and history, experiential tourism content or hospitality categories.
