London named world’s best city for 2023 and Dublin makes it into the top 20

Dublin features in the top 20.

London has been named the world's best city for 2023. Dublin, meanwhile, is ranked at 19th place in the 50-city list, beating out cities such as Toronto, Milan and Sydney. The English capital has topped the charts of the World's Best Cities rankings, beating Paris and New York into second and third place respectively. In particular, the 11 million-person city was praised for its amazing restaurants, being a hit on social media as the "capital of the world", and having a huge amount of luxury properties that attract the mega-rich. The site said that London is "almost back to pre-pandemic capacity", and has benefitted from the poor performance of the pound to "attract investment and, of course, previously priced-out tourists." They added: "An astonishing 61 luxury London properties—each worth $11.5 million or more—were sold in the first six months of 2022, which was the highest number in a decade." The rankings, which are compiled by real estate and tourism consultancy firm Resonance, look at six different categories: place, product, programming, people, prosperity and promotion.

They are more focused on financial and business factors, such as the number of large tech firms in a given city than other more holiday-centred rankings.

And it seems like everyday Londoners themselves are playing their own part in promoting the city to the rest of the world, by posting content on social media and chronicling the great things the capital has to offer. [caption id="attachment_373126" align="alignnone" width="628"] London beat the likes of Paris, New York and Tokyo to top the list (iStock)[/caption] London comes out top in the Promotions category, with its residents and visitors producing the most Insta hashtags, Facebook check-ins and TripAdvisor reviews. The city's incredible restaurants are at the fore of its status rise it seems. "If all those newcomers can’t cook at home, they came to the right place, especially these days, when the culinary industry is being reborn after dozens of the city’s most iconic restaurants shuttered over the pandemic," it is argued in the rankings. "The city with the fourth-best restaurants on the planet is buzzing again with big-name openings like Dubai-based izakaya-style restaurant Kinoya in Harrods. "There are hundreds of other rooms soon joining this increasingly daring culinary destination serving—and welcoming the world once more." After Paris and New York, the top five is rounded out by Tokyo and Dubai, in fourth and fifth respectively. Barcelona, Rome, Madrid, Singapore and Amsterdam make up the rest of the top ten. There wasn't another British city in the top 50 - not even Edinburgh, which recently topped Time Out magazine's best cities in the world in 2022 list. In this list, London was down in 17th, with Birmingham in 22nd. The Worlds Best Cities writes about Dublin:

"Safe, gregarious and increasingly wealthy, the Celtic Tiger has never been fiercer, ranking #16 in GDP per Capita while simultaneously #27 for Income Equality. The magnetism is obvious in places like its Docklands area, known as Silicon Docks, home to big tech and digital players including Google, Facebook, Amazon, eBay, Apple and Airbnb. They come for some of the world’s lowest corporate taxes and stay for the home- grown economic development initiatives like Ireland’s Local Enterprise Office, which supports international companies with mentoring, training and financial grants. And it’s not just household names setting up shop in the Irish capital. The site of several internationally ranked universities (Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and Dublin City University), the city continues to attract smaller start-ups that choose it over traditional head office cities like London and New York. It helps to be able to offer eager young employees something to do outside of work, which Dublin’s famous—though increasingly costly—pub-centric nightlife (ranked #15 globally) handily takes care of, along with an abundance of concerts, shows and events (Culture ranks #19). Of course, being among the safest cities on the planet helps, too."