Skip to content

Is Vancouver an overrated travel destination? Here's how the city ranks globally

Nearly 1 in 10 travellers may leave disappointed
vancouver-skyline-sunshine-sunrise
How overrated is Vancouver, B.C. as a tourist destination? One UK company crunched some data to come up with new global rankings.

Is Vancouver overrated?

And for those who say yes, how does it rank with other top destinations?

For some reason, UK casino market analysis company KingCasinoBonus decided to take a look at that issue. Maybe they were done reviewing free gambling apps.

In that analysis, they used TripAdvisor star ratings of the top 85 cities around the world to see how often people were disappointed with their travel destination (comparing five- and four-star rankings with three-, two-, and one-star reviews).

Vancouver ended up in the middle of the pack, ranked 56th.

The analysis estimates 9.3 per cent of visitors to the city ended up disappointed with their trip.

And the most disappointing attraction? The historic Gastown neighbourhood.

"Highly recommend to skip this area especially if you are with your kids," wrote one recent visitor on TripAdvisor about Gastown, with others noting the steam clock is fun, but that the proximity to the Downtown Eastside causes safety and other concerns. 

Vancouver wasn't the only Canadian city to make the list. Toronto led the pack, ranked 36th (disappointing almost 11 per cent of visitors) with their zoo named the most disappointing tourist site. Montreal also beat (is that the right word in this case?) Vancouver, disappointing 10.3 per cent of travellers and ranking 43rd. The Biodome was the city's big letdown.

The nation's capital was just behind Vancouver at 60th (8.6 per cent disappointing) with Ottawa's science and technology museum named the city's least interesting attraction.

Calgary and Quebec City rounded out the Canadian contingent, at 65th and 67th, respectively (both disappointed 8.2 per cent of visitors). The Calgary Tower observation deck and Old Quebec Funicular were the big misses there. Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Halifax didn't make the list and it's hard to tell if that's a good or bad thing.

Overall, the most overrated city to travel to is Bangkok, Thailand, followed by Antalya, Turkey, and Singapore. All disappointed around 16 per cent of visitors.