New data on 100+ global cities shows the gap between online attention and actual experience – and why it matters for investors and planners.

The travel planning playbook has been rewritten. Guidebooks gather dust while TikTok clips and Instagram posts drive wanderlust, steering global attention toward cities that dominate digital conversation. A viral street food video from Bangkok. A time-lapse of Dubai’s skyline. A hidden coffee shop in Seoul that somehow everyone knows about. This is how destinations win hearts – and wallets – in 2025.

But here’s the question that should matter to every city builder, investor and planner: Does that digital attention reflect reality?

It’s more than a marketing puzzle. Our Best Cities framework has consistently shown that the world’s most successful cities align three pillars: Livability, Lovability and Prosperity. The trinity is the foundation of our Place Power™ Score with which we measure our annual rankings and benchmark our global clientele. It’s where people want to live, visit and invest. And “Lovability” – the emotional magnetism of a place – often serves as the gateway. A city that captures hearts on a screen can draw talent, ideas and capital in real life. Understanding how attention maps onto actual quality isn’t vanity metrics; it’s a fundamental measure of urban competitiveness.

So we tested it. 

We compared each city’s social media visibility – drawn from geo-tagged TikToks and Instagram posts – against its Tourism Product Strength, a composite measure of a region’s quality supply of restaurants, nightlife, cultural institutions, shopping experiences, nature and parks, and sights and landmarks. We ran the numbers for hundreds of global destinations.

The result: an upward trend, but with wide variation. Some cities’ online presence mirrors their real-world strengths. Others are still working to translate quality into visibility. And a few, rich in experience and depth, have yet to see their stories fully told online.

Each point on the chart above represents a global city, plotted by Tourism Product Strength (x-axis) and Social Media Visibility (y-axis). The diagonal trend line shows the general correlation between quality of tourism product and buzz – the higher and farther to the right, the stronger a city performs on both dimensions.

The chart divides cities into four groups:

The Performers – Top Right Quadrant: Cities that excel across both dimensions, combining rich cultural and tourism assets with high digital visibility.

The Spotlight Cities – Top Left Quadrant: Cities with strong online visibility and growing opportunities to expand and diversify their on-the-ground experiences.

The Hidden Gems – Bottom Right Quadrant: Cities with robust tourism products and cultural depth that have yet to translate their strengths into significant social media attention.

The Up-and-Comers – Bottom Left Quadrant: Cities still building both their tourism infrastructure and their global visibility – often smaller markets with strong potential for growth.

Together, these quadrants show how destinations perform along two interconnected dimensions of tourism success: quality of experience and strength of visibility.

The Performers

The Performers are the world’s standard-bearers – destinations that deliver substance with reach, again and again.

These cities consistently match what their digital profiles promise, sustaining both online buzz and real-world excellence. It’s the kind of synchronization that builds loyalty, not just likes.

London epitomizes this balance. Centuries of cultural capital meet a dynamic contemporary scene that keeps the city perennially relevant. The result is a destination that photographs beautifully and delivers even more, creating the virtuous cycle every city wants: quality begets attention, attention begets investment, investment begets more quality.

Miami tells a different but equally instructive story – a city that turned digital fame into something richer and more sophisticated. What began as beaches and nightlife has expanded into art, design and dining depth that rivals any global capital. The Instagram-worthy sunsets remain, but now they’re backed by substance that makes visitors return and investors stay.

Ho Chi Minh City represents the emerging-market playbook done right. Rapid economic growth pairs with distinctive local character that translates powerfully on social media. The result: a city where the algorithm and the on-the-ground experience are aligned in the same direction.

In these places, visibility and experience feed one another. It’s the strongest proof that when a city invests in quality, attention follows naturally – and when attention arrives, smart cities know how to convert it into lasting value.

The Spotlight Cities

The Spotlight Cities already command global attention online. The opportunity now is for the on-the-ground experience to grow alongside it.

Their visibility is an asset – momentum that can be directed toward deeper cultural development and more diversified tourism offerings. These cities have won the first battle: getting noticed. The second battle is about delivering depth.

Nashville has harnessed its musical heritage into a vibrant online identity, propelled by viral nightlife content and cultural exports that resonate far beyond Tennessee. The Broadway honky-tonks photograph well. The question is whether the city’s growth story includes enough breadth of experience to match its digital fame – enough reasons for visitors to stay longer, return sooner, spend more.

Abu Dhabi has built extraordinary brand visibility through architecture, luxury and media partnerships. The skyline is iconic. The investments are substantial. Yet the city remains in the process of expanding the range of experiences available beyond those landmarks. It’s about translating architectural spectacle into cultural texture… the kind that builds emotional connection, not just visual impact.

Both cities illustrate how digital visibility can serve as the first chapter in a growth story. By investing in cultural institutions, public life and unique local experiences, they can transform momentary hype into enduring cultural equity. The risk is complacency – assuming that because people know your name, they’ll automatically love what you offer. The opportunity is to use attention as fuel for ambitious city-building that creates loyalty as powerful as the initial attraction.

The Hidden Gems

Hidden Gems are destinations where the real-world product is strong (sometimes world-class) but the online story hasn’t yet reached global audiences.

Their restaurants, design and everyday quality rival or surpass many of the world’s most visited cities. But their social media presence trails behind. For investors and developers, this gap represents opportunity. For civic leaders, it’s a call to action around storytelling.

Osaka stands out. A city of exceptional culinary tradition, neighborhood vibrancy and creative energy that remains less visible online than other Asia-Pacific peers. Despite ranking high in tourism product measures, its digital footprint – at least on TikTok and Instagram – remains surprisingly modest. The experiences are there. The stories waiting to be told are there. What’s missing is the amplification.

Tucson, Arizona, tells a parallel story in North America. Its desert-modern aesthetic, UNESCO-recognized gastronomy and revitalized downtown make it a deeply authentic experience, yet one still waiting for global discovery. The city has invested in itself. It has substance. It hasn’t yet cracked the code on making that substance visible at scale.

For both, the opportunity lies not in reinvention but in amplification. Investing in storytelling, digital visibility and partnerships that help the world see what locals already know. When Hidden Gems get the attention they deserve, the economic returns can be swift and substantial. There’s nothing more valuable than discovering you’ve been underestimating an asset that was globally distinct all along.

The Up-and-Comers

The Up-and-Comers score lower on both product and visibility today. But the potential for transformation is highest here.
These places are actively building their tourism ecosystems and brand recognition. In doing so, they can accelerate growth across both dimensions simultaneously. There’s freedom in starting from a lower base: every gain is visible, every investment can be leveraged for maximum impact.

Omaha, Buffalo, Salt Lake City and Leeds are prime examples. Each is investing in arts, dining and public space while cultivating distinct civic identities. As their reputations grow, so does their ability to attract investment, visitors and residents – creating a self-reinforcing cycle where perception and performance strengthen together.

For civic leaders and developers, this quadrant represents possibility. It’s proof that a strong story, grounded in authentic progress, can be one of the most powerful forms of city-building. The challenge is patience – recognizing that building both product and visibility simultaneously takes time. The advantage is focus – knowing that every dollar spent can be optimized for both on-the-ground quality and digital storytelling impact.

Cities in this quadrant that get the formula right can leapfrog peers who are resting on legacy advantages. The algorithm doesn’t care about history. It cares about momentum.

Why It Matters

The divergence between online popularity and real-world quality carries real economic weight.

When social buzz outpaces substance, investors risk mistaking visibility for value – pouring capital into destinations that look better on a screen than they perform in reality. When strong, experience-rich cities fail to surface online, they risk being undervalued despite robust fundamentals. Capital flows to the visible, not always to the deserving.

Recognizing these mismatches helps planners and investors look beyond the algorithm – to see where true cultural capital lies and where long-term returns are most likely to compound. A city in the Hidden Gems quadrant might offer better risk-adjusted returns than an overhyped Spotlight City still building its product. A Performer city’s premium pricing might be justified by the sustainable quality of its tourism ecosystem.

The smartest urban strategies will synchronize story and substance. Cities that do this don’t just attract visitors, they attract believers. In a world where algorithms shape desire, the most resilient urban brands will win twice: first in attention, then in loyalty

That’s the difference between a viral moment and a lasting legacy. Between a trending hashtag and a thriving economy. Between being on everyone’s feed and being on everyone’s mind when they plan their next trip. Or their next move.