The 2006 edition of the Anholt City Brands Index has
found that London, favourite city brand in 2005, has slipped into 2nd place
behind Sydney, which climbed up two places to take the top spot.London is
still seen as having the most potential for the future, with respondents
ranking the city as top for higher education and ranking it highly in terms
of finding work and doing business (top three). London also came top in
terms of awareness, with respondents ranking the city as the one they knew
most about, whether they had been there or not.

Even though this ranking seems to mirror the recent trend set by our
nation’s cricketers and rugby players of showing great potential and high
awareness, but ultimately being doomed to lose to the Australians, all is
not lost for the UK’s capital city. When respondents were asked which city
they felt had contributed to the world the most over the last 30 years,
London was ranked 3rd whilst Sydney came in at 14th place. Respondents also
felt that London had more on offer to keep them entertained, whether they
were visiting London on a week-long holiday or living there as a resident
(top three).

The survey, now in its second year, polled 15,255 people in 20 countries to
rate the presence, appearance, amenities, people, life and potential of 60
cities around the world. The CBI, created by government advisor Simon
Anholt and powered by global market intelligence solutions provider GMI
(Global Market Insite Inc.), is designed to show how people react to a
city’s brand in the same way they react to high-street brands. Overall
rankings showed Paris coming in 3rd, closely followed by Rome (4th) and New
York (5th). Edinburgh, the only other UK city included in this year?s CBI,
came 30th.

London was perceived to be more physically attractive than Edinburgh, which
was ranked 19th against London’s number 4 spot. However, despite receiving
less sunshine and more rain than London, Edinburgh was perceived to have a
better climate. Similarly, Edinburgh faired better than London in terms of
cleanliness, despite its ‘Auld Reekie’ image. Edinburghers were perceived
to be as welcoming as the Milanese and New Orleanians (19th place), whilst
Londoners were perceived to be significantly less welcoming, in 37th place.

The top and bottom ten cities from the 2006 CBI are:

Sydney     1          
London     2          
Paris     3          
Rome     4          
New York     5          
Washington DC     6          
San Francisco     7          
Melbourne     8          
Barcelona     9          
Geneva     10    
     
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Warsaw     51
Havana     52
Jerusalem 53
Bangkok 54
Cairo     55
Mumbai     57
Manila     58
Lagos     59
Nairobi 60

“This year’s CBI shows again how perceptions of a city vary greatly from
the actual reality. London came in 3rd this year for public amenities,
which include public transport, something that many of us who use the
London tube would strongly disagree with,” explains CBI report author Simon
Anholt.

“A city’s brand is extremely complex and can be very hard to change. Many
of us will only visit a handful of overseas cities in our lifetime, but you
can almost guarantee that when we do visit a place, we already have a fixed
idea of what we will find before we get there. Whilst you may never have
visited Paris, many will always associate it with romance, and the same is
true of Milan and style. This is a trend that is likely to continue for the
foreseeable future,” concludes Anholt.
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