If you haven’t seen the latest issue of National Geographic Traveler, you’re missing out… on the world’s most delicious cities.

The index, located on pg. 42 of the April/May issue, is the latest collaboration between Resonance and National Geographic to rank and evaluate cities in the U.S. and around the world.

As leading advisors in real estate, tourism, and economic development for regions, cities and communities, Resonance knows the value of place. And of a solid food strategy. In just Napa Valley alone, the California county welcomed 3.85 million visitors in 2018 who spent $2.23 billion. While visits have grown 8.9% since 2016, spending grew 15.9%. And that’s in just one small destination.

The importance of food to destinations shows in our rankings of our annual World’s Best Cities and America’s Best Cities. It comes up again and in our work with destinations as they seek to engage with visitors, differentiate themselves and celebrate their own stories through food. In California’s San Luis Obispo County, we’re helping the region leverage the growing reputation of their wineries by creating a new food and wine event and a culinary institute as part of our Destination Management Strategy for the region.  

In L.A., where we’re working on a tourism master plan, we’ve found that great ethnic food is intrinsic to the city’s identity, a true differentiator. It’s also why we’re excited to have been selected to create a new regional brand (and taste the wines!) for the Finger Lakes region in New York.

Telling the story of the importance of food to the success of destinations as they seek to attract tourism and investment is why we’re proud to partner with National Geographic journalists to help its Traveler magazine (the most-read travel title on the planet) reveal the world’s best cities for culinary abundance. “We enlisted Resonance Consultancy’s help in creating our ‘21 Best Food Cities Around the World’,” explains National Geographic Travel Director for Editorial Projects Andrew Nelson. “We dined out on their data from Berlin to Bangkok to surface the globe’s great dining towns. It proved delicious!”

RESONANCE INSIGHT MEETS NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC STORYTELLING

The three-page “Best List” features Resonance Consultancy’s “data-backed index of the globe’s most delicious destinations makes for a moveable feast,” state National Geographic editors in the story.

“To create this index, we partnered with research firm Resonance Consultancy, a global advisor on economic and tourism development. They measured the number of high-quality restaurants and culinary experiences from online channels in more than 200 cities.”

There were plenty of surprises, and the cities that we surfaced in the list that follows—from New York to New Delhi—offer plenty of inspiration for your travel plans, not to mention cities to study in terms of their food strategy.

THE WORLD’S 21 BEST FOOD CITIES

1. London
2. Tokyo
3. Seoul
4. Paris
5. New York
6. Rome
7. Bangkok
8. San Paulo
9. Barcelona
10. Dubai
11. Istanbul
12. Singapore
13. Madrid
14. Shanghai
15. Osaka
16. Las Vegas
17. Hong Kong
18. Berlin
19. Beijing
20. Rio de Janeiro
21. New Delhi

We’re excited to be working with National Geographic to share this data and its insights with travelers around the world.

To learn more about how our approach to benchmarking and monitoring the experiential quality of cities can help your city or region, please send me an email.