London takes best destination in TripAdvisor Traveler's Choice Awards

London has been in the news every week this month as a top travel destination.

TripAdvisor has just published its list of Traveler's Choice Award-winning destinations for 2016, ranking the top worldwide destinations for travelers.
London bagged the number one spot this year, as the favorite destination for tourists the world over. The British capital moved up five places in the ranking in the space of a year. 

Each year, TripAdvisor analyzes the thousands of reviews and opinions posted on the platform by travelers in order to take the temperature of the travel market and identify the most popular destinations. An algorithm aggregates all the comments left about hotels, restaurants, sites and landmarks over a 12-month period, and weighs them in relation to quality and quantity. For the latest ranking, reviews were gathered from November 2014 to November 2015.
The results saw London come out on top, as the destination of choice for travelers over the last year. This puts the British capital in the number one spot, pushing out last year's winner, Marrakesh (Morocco), which drops to third place. The Turkish city of Istanbul continues to prove popular with travelers, rising to second place this year (from 3rd in 2015).

Note that the study was carried out before Istanbul was hit by terrorist attacks in January and on March 19, 2016. TripAdvisor recommends that travelers check their government's website for the latest travel information -- including security alerts and travel warnings -- when planning their trip. 

In spite of the current context, Paris remains a popular destination. Like its rival, London, the French capital jumped five places in the ranking to be named fourth best destination.

New York and Ubud on the up

The rest of the ranking holds few surprises. Tourist hotspots like Siem Reap, the Cambodian site of the Angkor Temples, and the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, can be found in fifth and eighth places. Only two newcomers have edged into the top ten, with New York landing in ninth place, and Ubud -- a village on the island of Bali, Indonesia -- taking tenth. 

Traveler's Choice Awards top ten destinations worldwide:

1. London, England
2. Istanbul, Turkey
3. Marrakech, Morocco
4. Paris, France
5. Siem Reap, Cambodia
6. Prague, Czech Republic
7. Rome, Italy
8. Hanoi, Vietnam
9. New York, USA
10. Ubud, Indonesia

Just last week, a new report from the New West End Company and Savills found that the West End of London is Europe's most attractive retail destination. Two weeks ago the British capital was revealed as the most talked about travel destination on Twitter, according to data from London & Partners, the Mayor of London’s promotional company, and Spredfast. And the week before that it was named the most popular European city in 2015 for international tourists, according to figures from European Cities Marketing.