Tokyo, Bangkok: cities with the friendliest locals

Two Asian cities have been ranked as having the friendliest populations in the world.

Tokyo came in second in TripAdvisor's list of Top 10 Friendliest People, while Bangkok was ranked seventh.

The city with the friendliest locals was Cancun in south-east Mexico.

The travel site also released a list of friendliest taxi drivers, where Singapore came in third, after Tokyo and Cancun in first and second place respectively.

Singapore also gained second spot after Tokyo for having the Best Taxi Services, and fifth for having the Best Public Transport, along with Tokyo in first place, Hong Kong in sixth and Seoul in ninth.

In terms of cleanliness, Singapore was ranked second in the world after Tokyo with the cleanest streets. The two cities were the only Asian cities to be featured in the list.

Tokyo and Singapore also ranked first and second respectively in Tripadvisor's Top 10 Safest Streets. Another Asian country, Seoul in South Korea, was ranked eighth in this list.

TripAdvisor's Cities Survey looks at how international and local travellers view 40 key tourist cities around the world.

Results were compiled based on more than 75,000 responses to a survey sent to those who have recently written reviews on the featured cities.

Other lists that were part of the survey include top destinations for shopping. New York City came in first place, while in Asia, Bangkok was the other shopping heaven as a runner up, Tokyo (fifth), Hong Kong (sixth) and Kuala Lumpur (eighth) made up the rest of the Asian destinations in the top ten.

For tourism value, respondents said Lisbon is the best place. In Asia, Bangkok came in third, followed by Hanoi, and Kuala Lumpur in ninth place.

TripAdvisor spokesperson Jean Ow-Yeong explained "while the greatness of a city isn't defined by just these factors, cleanliness, safety, value-for-money, ease of using local transport and even the friendliness of locals can be important when it comes to the rating of a city.

"It is therefore encouraging to see that Asian cities like Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur have ranked favourably on the world stage for many of these categories."

For more information go to www.tripadvisor.com.au/