A new study of 100 cities has confirmed that London has the highest reputation for trust, esteem, admiration and good feelings.
The annual study, conducted by the Reputations Institute, also surveys 13 different attributes relating to economy, administration and general appeal. The availability of office spaces in London has been widely recognised as an important factor in the capital’s ability to compete and the positive results are clearly visible in this study.
Mayor Boris Johnson in an interview with Management Today said: “We want to make London the most positive, complete, attractive city to live in and invest in.” He further highlighted the attractiveness of the city to small business, SME’s and entrepreneurs who are looking for cheap spaces to work in a national and international hub.
The city of London has prided itself on being ahead of the market for some time. Its ability to keep up with emerging trends and offer ‘unrivalled concentration of professional services’ is globally recognized through investment and tourism. The award shows that it still has a keen competitive edge globally.
Results from over 35,000 respondents across 15 countries were collected by the institute, who asked participants to rate some 59 countries. The need to go above and beyond expectations was clearly evident.
Commenting on the results, Nicolas Trad of the Reputation Institute said: “A strong city reputation requires hard work across many different areas – having cultural appeal or being an international business hub is simply not enough.”
London & Partners’ chief executive Gordon Innes said: “As the official promotional organisation for London, we are delighted with this accolade recognising our reputation as a world class city.
The top rating demonstrates London’s enduring appeal to visitors, students and businesses.”
Geneva, Sydney, Vienna and Venice claimed the other top five places, benefiting from promotional investment across the globe. An interesting parallel can be made with the institute’s study on country reputations, which shows a negative correlation between high ranking cities and high ranking capitals. The result clearly highlighting that ‘cities can rise above national, political and economic issues to build trust and admiration with the public’.
