In a ranking of the 20 friendliest cities in Asia, Manila is at 10th place. According to a study by online language course provider Preply, the capital of the Philippines was outranked by Taipei, Singapore, Delhi, Seoul, Chennai (India), Bangkok, Hanoi, Mumbai, and Busan.
Preply said it arrived at the ranking using data it collected from research firms, travel lists, and websites of language companies.
Manila rated 3 out of 5 for friendliness to foreigners "and also boasts a high visitor return rate at 16 percent, a visitor acceptance of 159 out of 200, and an acceptance of diversity score at 57/100. [The city likewise] has the highest English language proficiency of all Asian cities, at 578."
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However, Manila’s ranking as a relatively visitor-friendly city is tempered by the fact that it is also the riskiest city in the region for tourists, with a safety index score of 35.42 out of 100 points. The next city in the list, Delhi, scored 41.01.
A ranking by Forbes Advisor in July placed Manila dead last in its safest cities in the world list, with a score of with a score of 91.49 out of 100, due to its high levels of crime risk, personal security risk, health security risk, infrastructure security risk, and digital security risk.
Manila also didn’t make the cut in Forbes’s list of best places for Americans to retire abroad, citing the country’s first-place ranking in the World Risk Index report. It was the first time the country didn’t make it to that list since Forbes started publishing it.
According to Preply, Taipei ranked first in its friendliest cities list because it "boasts the highest diversity acceptance of any city, creating a welcoming environment for visitors from all walks of life. Not only this, but Taipei has the highest possible friendliness rating for foreigners, earning a perfect score of five out of five, ensuring you’ll receive a warm and hospitable welcome when you arrive."
Taipei also scored 84.55 out of 100 in the criteria of safety when moving around the city, the second-highest out of all Asian cities. "As well as welcoming tourists with open arms, Taipei showcases some of Asia’s best street food, boasts convenient public transport systems, and has a range of cultural and historical attractions to explore," Preply said.
Despite speaking mainly Mandarin, majority of Taiwanese "can speak basic English phrases."
At the other end of the spectrum, Mandalay, a city in Myanmar, was named least friendly city.
"Despite its astonishing architecture, monasteries, temples, and mouth-watering street food, Mandalay is revealed to have one of the lowest friendliness to foreigners ratings, scoring just 2 out of 5," the Preply study said. "Its acceptance of diversity score is 22 out of 100—fairly low compared to the high-scoring cities in our ranking. Additionally, its visitor acceptance in general is the lowest of any city, scoring 11 out of 200—that’s a substantial difference compared to Taipei’s score of 164. Its visitor return rate is the lowest, with just five percent of all visitors saying they have returned once visiting."
Nearly 2.4 million tourists visit Mandalay annually.
Other cities in Preply’s least friendly cities in Asia list include Riyadh, Jakarta, Karachi, Amman (Jordan), Beijing, Phuket, Jaipur (India), Dhaka, and Shenzhen.
According to Preply, for its friendliest cities in Asia list, it created a "seed list" of major cities across the region then ranked these based on data gathered by other lists makers: the visitor return rate was from Nomad List; visitor acceptance, which refers to how many passports each country accepts visa-free, with visa on arrival or with electronic tourist visas from the Passport Index; acceptance of diversity is from Equaldex’s Equality Index, "to help visualize the legal rights and public attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people in a given region;" safety score from Numbeo; English language proficiency from EF Education First; and friendliness to foreigners from Nomad List.
2024-08-19T12:19:09Z dg43tfdfdgfd