Kyiv's hotels have one of the worst reputations worldwide among major cities, a new survey shows. But, for once, the city enjoys good company.
Based on more than 34 million reviews from 140
hotel booking sites, the survey is compiled by UK-based metasearch site www.trivago.co.uk and ranks cities by
percentage of positive reviews.
The survey includes a number of surprise
results, with top tourist destinations and world hubs mostly coming in at the bottom
of the ranking. London, for instance, is very last on the list, just below such
other prominent cities as Paris, Amsterdan and Copenhagen. The snooty attitudes
towards tourists that France is famous for (the country’s second biggest city
Lyon came in 90th) no longer seem charming, if they ever were.
This is surprising company for Kyiv, which
comes in 92nd in the ranking. Both as a country and as individual cities,
Ukraine usually falls into a neighborhood populated by African and Middle
Eastern states. Here, however, its fellows at the bottom are such flashy cities
as Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro.
On the other end of the spectrum are many less
high-profile cities, with the notable exception of the world’s biggest city,
Tokyo, ranked 4th. Dresden in former East Germany tops the ranking, with nearby
Polish cities Gdansk and Krakow both in the top 10.
Worryingly for Kyiv’s tourism prospects,
competition from nearby Central European countries appears to be quite strong.
In addition to the two Polish cities, the Hungarian capital Budapest also makes
the top 10, followed by Warsaw, Bucharest and Prague – all in the top 25.
The study’s methodology may leave much to be
desired and does not necessarily confirm the anecdotal evidence from guests at
the nation’s top hotels. But the results do point to one of Ukraine’s perennial
problems when it comes to dealing with foreign visitors – the low level of
services, incomparable to anything seen in the West, Asia or Latin America.
Perhaps one of the reasons is the combination
of culture and Soviet heritage, which has caused Ukrainians to be one of least
emotional people in the world, and unhappy
to boot. That rubs off on the whole tourism (or business visit) experience.
Restaurants and hotels in the capital have
made strides in recent years, making sure their staff is quick, helpful,
polite, and yes, even smiling on occasion. But that’s just not enough to keep
up in an increasingly competitive world.
Top 10:
1.
Dresden, Germany
2.
Hanoi, Vietnam
3.
Portland, USA
4.
Tokyo, Japan
5.
Santiago de Compostela, Spain
6.
Gdansk, Poland
7.
Chicago, USA
8.
Seattle, USA
9.
Krakow, Poland
10. Budapest, Hungary
Bottom 10:
91. Los Angeles, USA
92. Kyiv, Ukraine
93. Frankfurt, Germany
94. Panama City, Panama
95. Brussels, Belgium
96. Amsterdam, Netherlands
97. Paris, France
98. Copenhagen, Denmark
99. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
100. London, United
Kingdom
Kyiv Post editor Jakub Parusinski can be
reached at [email protected]
