Yorkshire cities top and tail latest poll
York is Britain’s most liked city, with more than nine in ten Britons (92%) saying that they like the historic Viking settlement, according to latest data.
Newly released YouGov profiles data on the opinions of more than 55,000 people towards 57 English, Welsh and Scottish cities puts Roman spa town Bath in second place, on 89%, followed by Scottish capital Edinburgh on 88%.
At the bottom of the table sits Bradford, which only 23% say they like. Only marginally behind is Wolverhampton, on 24%, with third from bottom being Sunderland at 30%.
All three are English cities – the least liked Scottish city is Dundee, in 45th place on 53%, while the least liked Welsh city is Swansea, in 43rd place on 53%.
Meanwhile, York was recently named the 10th UK City in the 2017 International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) rankings report making it one of the UK’s Top 10 cities for international association meetings.
The report provides details of how countries and cities perform in attracting meetings and conferences, which take place on a regular basis, rotate between a minimum of three countries and have at least 50 participants.
Overall, York ranks 124th in the ICCA European rankings and the seventh most popular English city, moving up two places from ninth in the 2016 publication.
London retains the top spot in the rankings, as the most popular English city, with Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham also in the Top 10. Barcelona is ranked as the number one city in the world for international association meetings, while the UK is third behind USA and Germany.
VisitYork4meetings, the business tourism brand for Make It York, is charged with promoting the city as a world class destination for conferences, meetings and events, currently worth £142.1m annually. VisitYork4Meetings provide free venue finding and conference bidding support to conference organisers looking to place their events in the city.
Laura Freer, business tourism manager for VisitYork4meetings, said: “York’s knowledge driven economy has a solid reputation for research, development, innovation and academic excellence and it’s great to see a number of international events, with links to the city’s specialisms, taking place. With 2 world class universities, York is an international hub for science and technology, and a growing centre for enterprise, creativity and commerce, making it a perfect platform for business related events. We’re extremely proud of our new position in the ICCA rankings and we look forward to working closely with our venue partners to ensure we move up the table in the years to come.”
The full list of YouGov rankings:
| City | % who like the city | Rank |
| York | 92% | 1 |
| Bath | 89% | 2 |
| Edinburgh | 88% | 3 |
| Chester | 83% | 4 |
| Durham | 81% | 5 |
| Salisbury | 80% | 6 |
| Truro | 80% | 7 |
| Canterbury | 79% | 8 |
| Wells | 79% | 9 |
| Cambridge | 78% | 10 |
| Winchester | 78% | 11 |
| Oxford | 78% | 12 |
| Inverness | 78% | 13 |
| Lincoln | 77% | 14 |
| Exeter | 76% | 15 |
| Stoke-on-Trent | 75% | 16 |
| St David’s | 74% | 17 |
| Brighton & Hove | 74% | 18 |
| Worcester | 73% | 19 |
| Chichester | 73% | 20 |
| Hereford | 73% | 21 |
| London | 73% | 22 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 72% | 23 |
| Norwich | 72% | 24 |
| Glasgow | 71% | 25 |
| Ripon | 71% | 26 |
| Manchester | 69% | 27 |
| Liverpool | 68% | 28 |
| Plymouth | 68% | 29 |
| Cardiff | 67% | 30 |
| Ely | 66% | 31 |
| Stirling | 65% | 32 |
| Gloucester | 64% | 33 |
| Portsmouth | 64% | 34 |
| Bristol | 63% | 35 |
| St Albans | 63% | 36 |
| Carlisle | 61% | 37 |
| Lichfield | 60% | 38 |
| Aberdeen | 58% | 39 |
| Leeds | 58% | 40 |
| Nottingham | 57% | 41 |
| Southampton | 55% | 42 |
| Swansea | 53% | 43 |
| Sheffield | 53% | 44 |
| Dundee | 53% | 45 |
| Derby | 44% | 46 |
| Birmingham | 40% | 47 |
| Peterborough | 40% | 48 |
| Salford | 38% | 49 |
| Leicester | 38% | 50 |
| Coventry | 37% | 51 |
| Kingston upon Hull | 37% | 52 |
| Preston | 33% | 53 |
| Wakefield | 32% | 54 |
| Sunderland | 30% | 55 |
| Wolverhampton | 24% | 56 |
| Bradford | 23% | 57 |
