London fails to impress, despite Olympic and Jubilee success

London has failed to impress the users of TripAdvisor despite the success of its ‘Jubilympic’ year.

According to the latest ranking of 40 key tourist cities, based on the views of 75,000 responses, the UK capital let itself down most in the categories of friendliness and cleanliness.

In fact, it didn’t perform particularly well in most of the 10 criteria, which also included public transport, value for money, friendliness of taxi drivers and shopping.

The only categories it scored well in were shopping, where it took fourth place after New York, Bangkok and Dubai, and for its taxi services, where it came fifth.

The city ranked second to last in the friendliest locals category, with only Moscow worse.

Despite the big clean-up in the lead up to this year’s Diamond Jubilee and Olympics, London is ranked 26th in the cleanliness of streets category.

"While London hasn’t ranked particularly highly by those that have reviewed the city this year, it’s important to remember that many of the respondents may have experienced London before major changes were made or post the events of the summer," said TripAdvisor spokesperson Emma Shaw.

"The popularity of London as one of the most visited cities in the world remains and travellers will continue to rave about it as a loved destination. Indeed this year London was voted the best city in the world in the 2012 TripAdvisor Travellers Choice Awards. Even so, this study perhaps proves that even a great city isn’t going to be perfect in every way," continued TripAdvisor spokesperson, Emma Shaw.

TripAdvisor 2012 Cities Survey results overview:
London specific:
Category London ranking (out of 40)
Friendliest locals 39th place
Friendliest taxi drivers 12th place
Best taxi services 5th place
Cleanest streets 26th place
Ease of getting around 17th place
Best public transport 15th place
Best value for money 35th place
Best for shopping 4th place
Most underrated 23rd place
Safest city 28th place

Overall Top Performers:
Category First place Second place Third place
Friendliest locals Cancun Tokyo Lisbon

Friendliest taxi drivers Tokyo Cancun Singapore

Best taxi services Tokyo Singapore Dubai

Cleanest streets Tokyo Singapore Zurich

Ease of getting around Zurich Vienna Singapore

Best public transport Tokyo Zurich Munich

Best value for money Lisbon Budapest Bangkok

Best for shopping New York City Bangkok Dubai

Most underrated city Budapest Lisbon Cape Town

Safest city Tokyo Singapore Dubrovnik

Overall Low Rankers:
Category Last place Second last Third last
Friendliest locals Moscow London Hong Kong

Friendliest taxi drivers Moscow Beijing Brussels

Best taxi services Moscow Beijing Kuala Lumpur

Cleanest streets Mumbai Marrakech Punta Cana

Ease of getting around to get around Mumbai Punta Cana Moscow

Best public transport Hanoi Sharm el Sheikh Marrakech

Best value for money Oslo Moscow Zurich

Best for shopping Moscow Oslo Punta Cana

Most underrated city Punta Cana Dubai Sharm el Sheikh

Safest city Punta Cana Rio de Janeiro Sharm el Sheikh