The only 3 African capitals that made it to the Top 100 list of the world's most welcoming cities.

david nganga

November 13, 2017 8:47 AM

The list ranked cities by their openness to tourists.

Johannesburg,Nairobi and Cairo are the only three African cities that made it to the Top 100 list of the Most Welcoming Cities in the world.

This is according to a report released by an online travel and booking firm TravelBird that ranked international cities according to how welcoming they were in relation to their levels of over-tourism.

The Responsible Tourism Partnership defines over-tourism as “destinations where hosts or guests, locals or visitors, feel that there are too many visitors and that the quality of life in the area or the quality of the experience has deteriorated unacceptably”.

Johannesburg had a total score of 5.70 while Nairobi and Cairo got 4.31 and 4.28 points respectively.

The South-African capital had a 7.60 rating in terms of expert opinion compared to Nairobi's 5.30 and Cairo's 3.90.The opinion was based on a expert poll asking over 15,000 travel journalists how welcoming they found each city based on their personal experiences.

Singapore topped the list based in its ability to successfully manage its high visitor volumes with the best airport in the world and cultivating a safe city ecosystem. It was followed by Stockholm, Helsinki, San Francisco and Rotterdam.

In calculating the final score, TravelBird first analysed the global top 500 tourist destinations based on factors that can make a visitor feel welcome such as a welcoming port of entry (airport, train station, etc.), citizens’ happiness, safety, openness to host tourists, and English language proficiency.

It then weighted all the factors with a formula that measures over-tourism in each destination to determine the final ranking of 100 cities.

david nganga