Sunset on West Lake in Hanoi. (Photo: chinhphu.vn)
In the list released in early December 2021, Ho Chi Minh City was ranked 90th while Hanoi held the 94th position.
To get the list, the British company conducted research on over 110 cities across 86 markets, built around six key pillars including Economic and Business Performance, Tourism Performance, Tourism Policy and Attractiveness, Tourism Infrastructure, Health and Safety, and Sustainability.
According to the criteria, both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are rated the highest for tourism infrastructure (indexes at 38 and 44, respectively), based on accommodation services, travel, entertainment, shopping and places to eat.
A view of Ho Chi Minh City
Both cities have many high-class hotels, convenient homestay services and many entertainment spots and attractions. In addition, the health and safety criteria in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City were also evaluated well with indexes of 63 and 66, respectively.
Before the pandemic, in 2019, Ho Chi Minh City welcomed nearly 9 million international visitors, an increase of nearly 14% over the same period last year. Meanwhile, Hanoi greeted more than 7 million international visitors, an increase of 17% against 2018. In the rankings of world travel sites such as TripAdvisor, Booking and Agoda, the two cities are always loved by tourists.
Eight of the top 10 cities in the Top 100 City Destinations Index are European, including Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Rome, Berlin, London, Munich and Barcelona. Paris is the top-ranked city in the index overall. It has the highest ranking in terms of Tourism Performance and second-highest ranking in terms of Tourism Policy and Infrastructure globally./.