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If you go to the downtown of these cities, which seems to have the most people from around the world, most tourist-orientated feel?
Tier 1:
London
New York
Toronto
Sydney
Melbourne
Tier 2:
Paris
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Vancouver
Auckland
Montreal
Tier 3:
Amsterdam
Berlin
Brussels
Chicago
Manchester
Singapore
Dubai
Washington DC
Tier 4:
Amsterdam
Hong Kong
Rome
Tokyo
Houston
neither sydney or melboune would be in tier one , new york , london , paris , they are the top , tokyo is important but is not all that international
auckland should not be in any tier , dublin or even birmingham would be ahead of it but neither would be in tier 2 , mumbai should be in there , a lot of ex pats work in finance in that city , dubai is a completley hollow place , a poor mans vegas at best with an utterly fickle non existent legal framework in which to do business properly and transparently
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Originally Posted by irish_bob
neither sydney or melboune would be in tier one , new york , london , paris , they are the top , tokyo is important but is not all that international
auckland should not be in any tier , dublin or even birmingham would be ahead of it but neither would be in tier 2 , mumbai should be in there , a lot of ex pats work in finance in that city , dubai is a completley hollow place , a poor mans vegas at best with an utterly fickle non existent legal framework in which to do business properly and transparently
Have you been to Australia? You'd be very surprised. People from all over the world form the bulk of the crowds in the city.
Of the cities I have visited, that are on this list:
1. New York
2. = London/Toronto
3. Paris
4. Abu Dhabi/Dubai
5. Berlin
New York beats London for me in terms of cosmopolitan feel. It's a majority-minority city, which London is not – no nationality/ethnic group is dominant. Whereas 70% of Londoners are still white British. It's also been extremely diverse for most of its history – bear in mind the current diversity of London is a fairly recent phenominum. Also, London lacks certain communities in significant numbers, for example, there are very few Latin Americans (apart from Colombians and Brazilians), Indonesians, Haitians, or Senegalese. As far as I am aware, NYC has a significant community from every major country on earth. London's easily the most cosmopolitan place in Europe, however.
Toronto almost beat London for me also as it's another majority-minority city and the ethnic neighbourhoods are so well defined – you can really travel the world in one city. London's are more ill defined and the population is far more mixed up. The "little X" phenominum you get in North America isn't so prevalent (with a few notable exceptions). However I've put them in joint place as Toronto's a fairly small city and lacks that megalopolis buzz. Plus I think the overall churn of people is much less than in London or NYC – people go there to settle down, whereas "doing" the Big Apple or the British capital for a while is a right of passage for many round the globe.
Paris is also very multicultural but it's largely communities from former French colonies, eastern Europe, Turkey or China/Vietnam. The centre is still very white-French and the immigrants tend to be more concentrated in the banlieues (suburbs), plus they don't collect census data about ethnicity in France so no-one really knows for sure. However, it does get more tourists than any other city in the world – so that counts for cosmopolitan feel.
Dubai is actually the most immigrant city on earth – with more than 80% of the population being foreign born. But it just not enough of a real city to warrant that cosmopolitan feel as communities are so segregated and no-one wants to put down roots – you're just there for the money/tax-breaks, and everyone plans to leave eventually. Abu Dhabi's downtown is the closest feel I think I've come to Manhattan in the Middle East – high rise, and with many nationalities mingling on the pavements.
Berlin does have a lot of Turks, Arabs, and Eastern Europeans but I was actually surprised at how white/German it is, even in the edgier inner city areas. Awesome city though – cosmopolitan insofar as a sheer diversity of lifestyles and tolerances rather than just ethnicities.
I've never been to Madrid, Amsterdam, LA, Miami, Bueons Aires, São Paolo or an Australian city but I'd guess they'd feature highly also.
^^ That ranking has one baseline.. I forget what it is, something related to offices - not exactly a good way to determine which cities are international or not (Bristol and Southampton there but Liverpool is not..!)
There is a difference between being a International City and being Tourist Orientated.
That was also my thought. Tourist-oriented could mean lots of tourist attractions (whether for domestic or foreign tourists). Orlando is tourist-oriented. So is Las Vegas. And Anaheim. And Branford. They all get some foreign tourists, but are they international? Do they have lots of signs in foreign languages? Some would regard Brussels as very international since it has 3 official languages (French, Flemish and German), though English is widely spoken. I don't know that I'd call it more international than Paris. Rio gets a lot of international tourists, and in tourist-oriented places you may hear many languages, but it's probably less international than Sao Paulo in many ways (latter has more international businesses).
Right now, Kabul has a large international presence. Not really tourist-oriented.
Houston is considered international due to the airport and international oil companies?
There is a difference between being a International City and being Tourist Orientated.
This. Thank you very much!
New York City is by far, the most international city. With a humongous presence of different cultures from different parts of the world. And home to many international companies that operates around the globe.
London, Tokyo, Paris & Hong Kong would make the top 5.
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