Announcing the Launch of the Global Tourism City Attractiveness Index and Global Rankings

 🧭 Discover the World’s Most Attractive Tourism Cities: Launch of the Yanolja Attractiveness Index Website

We are pleased to announce the official launch of the Yanolja Attractiveness Index website, a new destination for exploring the Global Tourism City Attractiveness Index—developed by Yanolja Research in collaboration with Purdue University CHRIBA and Kyung Hee University Center for H&T Analytics.

This global index offers a data-driven and theory-based evaluation of tourism cities around the world, measuring their attractiveness through both emotional (affective) and perceptual (cognitive) dimensions. It captures how positively cities are emotionally experienced by tourists (Attractiveness) and how widely known or prominent they are (Reputation).

🔍 What Is Tourism City Attractiveness?

Tourism City Attractiveness refers to the combination of psychological and perceptual factors that influence a tourist’s decision to visit a city. The concept builds on foundational theories such as the Push-Pull Framework of tourism motivation and Destination Image Theory, combining emotional responses with perceived city reputation to quantify a city's overall appeal.

📊 How the Index Works

The Yanolja Attractiveness Index is structured around two core components:

• Attractiveness (Affective): Captures tourists’ emotional responses and perceived value of the city

• Reputation (Cognitive): Reflects the visibility and recognition of the city as a global tourism destination

These are further broken down into four key dimensions:

1. Urban Aesthetics and Natural Scenery

2. Culture and History

3. Experiential Tourism Contents (e.g., food, shopping, entertainment)

4. Hospitality (e.g., service friendliness, resident attitudes)

Each dimension is measured using social media-based sentiment analysis and keyword modeling to reflect real tourist perceptions.

🌐 Why It Matters

This index marks a step forward in tourism research and destination strategy:

• Evaluates the multifaceted value of tourism cities across 191 global destinations

• Identifies each city’s strengths and weaknesses using consistent evaluation criteria

• Reflects real-time global tourism sentiment via social media analysis

• Guides DMOs, governments, and industry leaders in strategic decision-making

• Contributes to tourism theory by offering a comprehensive framework for studying tourist behavior and city image

📈 From Insight to Impact

The Yanolja Attractiveness Index provides both academic value—advancing tourism behavior research—and industry relevance, helping destinations improve branding, resource allocation, and long-term planning.

Whether you're a tourism researcher, policymaker, or industry professional, this index offers new insights into how global cities are perceived and how they can shape their future appeal.

👉 Visit the site to explore rankings, data, and the full methodology:

🔗Yanolja Attractiveness Index