We’ve all been there. You go on holiday with the intention of having some much needed down-time only for it to end up being a holiday of sun, sea and stress.
There isn’t much access to amenities around your accommodation. Catching public transport is a strenuous task. Even walking is problematic due to poor signage, and a language barrier.
To ensure that hellish holidays are a thing of the past, Rubberbond has rated the most popular holiday destinations on their ease of access.
Focusing on the most popular tourist hotspots of 2017, according to Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index, the top five were revealed as Bangkok, London, Paris, Dubai, and Singapore.
To help rate these travel destinations, Rubberbond has looked at seven key ranking systems to give a definitive ranking of the ease of exploration. They graded the cities on the Walkability of Streets, Bicycle Networks, Density of Streets, Public Transport, Mixed Neighbourhoods, Commutability to Nearby Regions and Parking & Roads.
Surprisingly, Bangkok – the most tropical destination and one favoured by travellers and gap-year takers, places last (5th) after receiving 45/70 points. But, it wouldn’t be a real gap year experience if it was easy to get around, would it? The city was majorly marked down for poor footpaths and crazy roads – which partly gives it its appeal amongst nomads. One thing the place was marked highly on was its proximity to beautiful landscapes. The capital had 20.2 million visitors in 2016 and it’s hard not to see why with it being so close to amazing locations such as Ancient City in Samut Prakan.
Dubai is the 4th most visited city in 2016. It’s booming and an ultra-modern metropolis, but the city only places second to last (4th) for its ease of access, with 52/70 points. Apparently, when they built this city they didn’t have bewildered tourists in mind. The destination was largely marked down for its street infrastructure. Roads are long and unsheltered, meaning vehicles usually go faster than the speed limit. Perfect for fast cars but not so great for people when there’s an increased risk of traffic accidents.
Tubes, late night buses, Boris bikes and an abundance of taxis – surely London has it all for tourists? Well apparently not, according to Rubberbond, London sits at just 3rd place with 53 / 70 points. Researchers noted that although transport links are great, but because of how large the city is it can take a long time to travel from A to B.
The city-state, Singapore, had 13.45 million visitors in 2016, the lowest out of the top five. Yet, Singapore has nearly the best infrastructure for travelling tourists, which has put Singapore firmly in 2nd place with 56/70 points. Prior studies have ranked Singapore’s road system higher than the efficient Japanese city, Tokyo, and even New York. The city is also home to many skyscrapers which give the city numerous streets, ideal for pedestrians.
The top tourist hotspot for traversing with 57/70 points is Paris. Even though this town tops the list, it’s apparently not enough of a pull for tourists. Paris ranks in at third place in the Global Destination Cities Index – Bangkok and London each had 4 million more visitors in 2016.
Paris is the perfect hotspot for bikes. Five percent of traffic in the French Capital is from cyclists, which soon could be higher with plans to create a bicycle freeway. This destination is also rated the highest for commutability to nearby areas. Tourists are just a short train ride away from a coffee in a Parisian café to a glass of pinot noir in picturesque vineyards.
Discover more about the top five tourist hotspots and see how their ease of travel links are rated for tourists.
