Tokyo Top For Tourist Joy In 2013, Survey Says

Tokyo was the world’s most satisfying tourist city in 2013, a survey conducted by a travel information website found.

The Japanese arm of the U.S. travel recommendation site TripAdvisor announced Tuesday that Tokyo came first for “overall satisfaction” in its city survey, which was based on online reviews by 54,000 travelers throughout 2013.

The survey of 37 major world cities showed New York City came in second and Barcelona third in terms of travelers’ overall satisfaction, followed by Istanbul, Prague, Vienna, Berlin, Rome, Paris, and Dubrovnik in Croatia.

Tourists were asked to respond on a 0-10 point scale to 16 questions covering topics such as access to transportation, how welcoming residents were, how satisfying attractions were, and how good their hotels were.

Tokyo came on top in five sections — local friendliness, taxi services, cleanliness, transport, and overall satisfaction.

Japan’s capital made it to the top 10 in another eight items, including taxi drivers’ friendliness (second), restaurants (third), shopping (fifth), and suitability for families (eighth).

However, Tokyo was ranked relatively low in terms of cultural attractions (11th), sightseeing and activities (13th), and cost-effectiveness (20th).

“(Tokyo) needs to spread its tourism resources to better convey Japan’s unique culture to guests” if it wants to raise the city’s relatively low rankings in some categories, the firm said.

The most cost-effective city was Budapest, followed by Lisbon, Hanoi, Prague, and Bangkok. The top five cities for sightseeing and activities were Rome, New York, Paris, London, and Istanbul. Rome was also first in terms of cultural attractions, followed by Vienna, Paris, Athens, and Istanbul.

However, according to Muslim tourists, Tokyo is one of the most difficult places to stay due to the language, culture, and relative scarcity of halal food in different parts of the city.  However, according to our observations on day to day basis, things are changing pretty fast. Due to the upcoming Tokyo Olympics 2020 and other political and geographical factors, both the Japanese government and the private sectors have been making massive investments to change the image of Tokyo and other parts of the country.