In light of the travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic, city trips to domestic destinations have become more and more attractive for short vacations. Now that regulations are starting to get lifted again and tourists are bound to explore cities beyond their own regional and national confines, Time Out Magazine has compiled a list of the most interesting neighborhoods around the world as a guideline – with more than one unexpected entry in the top 10.
While the survey among 27,000 city dwellers identified mainstays like New York and its Chelsea neighborhood, the lively XI District of Budapest or the historical Jongno 3-ga area of Seoul as some of the boroughs that offer city trippers a lot in terms of culinary richness, culture and a sense of community, the Senegalese capital Dakar and its Ngor quarter and Vilnius' Station District are more unusual picks. This might be rooted in the methodology of the survey, with local editors weighing the results according to their expertise and more importance given to the communality aspect brought to the forefront by the global pandemic.
Interestingly, the majority of the most sought after city trip destinations before COVID-19 are absent from Time Out's top 10. In 2018, Bangkok had the most international overnight visitors with roughly 23 million, followed closely by Paris and London according to a survey by MasterCard. New York City ranked seventh with 13.6 million, while Seoul came in at eleventh place with 11.2 million tourists staying overnight.
