South Africa’s unfriendliest city
While Cape Town has been voted South Africa’s friendliest city, according to a new survey, Johannesburg has come out as not only the unfriendliest city in the country, but the entire world.
This is according to travel magazine Condé Nast’s annual rankings of the world’s friendliest and unfriendliest cities.
The rankings are based on the magazine’s annual Readers’ Choice Survey, which had over 80,000 respondents casting 1.3 million votes.
The survey asked readers to rank cities on Arts and Culture, Friendliness, Scenery, Restaurants, Accommodation, Shopping and Value, on a 5-point scale from “poor” to “excellent”.
| # | City | Score |
| 1 | Auckland, New Zealand | 86.0 |
| 1 | Melbourne, Australia | 86.0 |
| 3 | Victoria, Canada | 85.7 |
| 4 | Charleston, USA | 84.3 |
| 5 | Dublin, Ireland | 83.8 |
| 5 | Sydney, Australia | 83.8 |
| 7 | Siem Reap, Cambodia | 83.6 |
| 8 | Cape Town, South Africa | 82.9 |
| 9 | Savannah, USA | 82.8 |
| 9 | Seville, Spain | 82.8 |
| 11 | Budapest, Hungary | 82.5 |
| 11 | Salzburg, Austria | 82.5 |
Condé Nast readers praised Cape Town, which ranked 8th overall, for its nature, coastline, mountains and beaches, and said it was safe for walking around alone – “even as a single woman”.
On the flip side, the magazine also listed the world’s most unfriendliest cities, with Johannesburg taking the top (dis)honour on a global scale.
“Unfriendly is a tough word to define—and as you might guess, a very subjective one,” the magazine said.
It noted that everything from location and political perception to size and basic language barriers can make a destination unattractive to tourists and be a factor in their evaluation of a place’s friendliness.
For Joburg, safety and security was cited by Condé Nast readers as the top gripe against the city, with many echoing the sentiment that it is simply not safe to travel alone.
| # | City | Score |
| 1 | Johannesburg, South Africa | 56.1 |
| 2 | Cannes, France | 58.5 |
| 3 | Moscow, Russia | 59.6 |
| 4 | Paris, France | 60.8 |
| 5 | Marseille, France | 60.9 |
| 6 | Beijing, China | 61.4 |
| 7 | Frankfurt, Germany | 61.7 |
| 8 | Milan, Italy | 62.9 |
| 9 | Monte Carlo, Monaco | 63.0 |
| 10 | Nassau, Bahamas | 63.6 |
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