JOIN USTop travel portal ranks City ahead of Seoul and Shenzen in Asia, second in India .
Is Bangalore showing signs of emerging as a stand-alone tourist destination, a decisive shift from being just a gateway?
Leading global travel site, TripAdvisor which analyses data based on advice from real travelers, has now ranked the city the second top Indian destination for tourists. The latest Travelers’Choice awards also places Bangalore 17th among 25 Asian cities ahead of even Shenzen and Seoul!
The rankings are determined on the merit of the quantity and quality of reviews, and ratings for hotels, attractions and restaurants in destinations worldwide. A total of 500 destinations across the globe are assessed over a 12-month period. This is the first time Bangalore has entered the Asian top-25 list.
New Delhi is ranked 11th this year, six positions higher than last year. But Jaipur fell two positions to the 23rd. Besides Bangalore, Mumbai is another new entrant to the list at 21st rank. Beijing has been ranked the top Asian destination. However, no Indian city figures in the list of global destinations, topped by Istanbul.
For decades, Bangalore’s tourist potential has been ruined by a clear lack of a holistic approach designed to beckon the visitors to the city’s heritage, culture and people’s history. As the TripAdvisor findings reveal, a shift could be in the offing.
Here’s a sample of the top tourist places within Bangalore chosen by travellers: National Gallery of Modern Art; Suryanarayana temple; Krav Maga Bangalore, the Israeli self-defence academy; Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum; Wonderla amusement park. The travellers also talk about 378 things to do in the City. And that include trips to Basavanagudi and Malleswaram and a few of the city’s numerous lakes.
The tourist trends might still be largely oriented towards built-up structures, but the data also indicates a decision-making process centred around food and stay.
TripAdvisor has reported an increase in travellers’ traffic across accommodations, attractions and eateries in Bangalore over the last five years. The city’s per cent of reviews compared to all reviews on the site has also risen by 41.21%. This, according to the travel site, clearly reflects that Bangalore has emerged as a key city on the iternary of travellers, both Indian and global.