Belgian city ranked as second most beautiful summer city of Europe
Baku, August 25, AZERTAC
A Belgian city features as the second most beautiful summer city in Europe, and the fourth globally, in a new ranking by British hotel chain Premier Inn, according to The Brussels Times.
The study presented a group of participants with a collection of images of cities all around the world in summertime and used eye-tracking technology to see which pictures people were drawn to quickest and where their gazes lingered the longest. These times were then combined to create one overall score out of a hundred.
Often referred to as the "Venice of the North", the Belgian city of Bruges made it to second place in Europe with an overall score of 84.1/100. As the sixth most populous city in Belgium, Bruges is one of Europe's best-preserved medieval towns and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The city is famous for its waterways, traditional architecture and historic attractions, making it no surprise that it ranks so highly.
Within Europe, Bruges was beaten only by the Greek tourist hotspot Mykonos, known for its iconic 16th-century windmills and whitewashed Cycladic architecture. Participants were drawn to Mykonos the fastest, as it only took an average of 1.5 seconds before people noticed the image of the city.
Worldwide, the list was topped by the Canadian city Banff. Surrounded by the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, the town is known for its historic wooden buildings and idyllic castle-like resort. Banff managed to hold people's gaze the longest in the study, with participants looking at the image for an average of 3.2 seconds.
For the global ranking, Bruges is in fourth place, slightly behind the Australian city of Sydney. It beats European places like Bristol in the UK, Palma de Mallorca in Spain and Kotor in Montenegro.
The least beautiful cities in Europe included in the study were the British cities of York and Cardiff and the Italian capital Rome.
Kyoto comes in as the most beautiful Asian city. The Japanese city, which ranks 7th globally, beats Singapore by quite some margin. Chefchaouen in Morocco is the highest-ranked African place, beating out the South-African Cape Town.
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