Busan City Enters 'World's Best Cities 2024' for the First Time... Ranked 67th Among 270 Global Metropolises

Global Consulting Firm Resonance Consultancy Releases '2024 World's Best Cities Report'

'Korea's Miami'... Notable for Low Urban Poverty Rate, High Social Media and # Ratio Indicating Strong Urban Prosperity

Busan City ranked 67th among 270 major global cities for the first time in the '2024 World’s Best Cities Report' published by the world-renowned consulting firm Resonance Consultancy.

Resonance Consultancy, a global consulting firm specializing in tourism, real estate, and economic development primarily operating in Canada and the United States, has annually analyzed the environment and user evaluations of 270 major global cities with populations over one million since 2016. They measure livability, popularity, and prosperity, then select the top 100 ideal cities, publishing the results as the 'World’s Best Cities Report.'

This ranking is significant because it selects cities preferred not only for livability and tourism appeal but also by both visitors and businesspeople. Starting this year, the ranking's accuracy was enhanced by analyzing user reviews and key statistics from platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Instagram.

In the 2024 World’s Best Cities Report, London, UK ranked first, Paris, France second, and New York, USA third. Seoul rose 16 places from 26th in 2023 to 10th in 2024, recognized as a leading global city influenced by the Korean Wave (Hallyu).

▲ Resonance Consultancy is an advisory firm focused on real estate, tourism, and economic development primarily in the US and Canada. Combining expertise in research, strategy, branding, and communications, it measures the value of regions and cities and provides consulting for development projects and urban growth. It has offices in New York, Vancouver, Montreal, Singapore, and other locations.

▲ World’s Best Cities Report

Since 2016, Resonance Consultancy has annually selected and ranked the top 100 global cities with populations over one million based on three categories?Livability, Lovability, and Prosperity?and 24 sub-indicators. They also publish rankings of the top 100 cities in the US and Europe each year and hold forums on urban innovation in famous cities worldwide.

Busan made its debut at 67th place in the '2024 World’s Best Cities Report,' following Atlanta and Houston in the US. Resonance Consultancy notably referred to Busan as the 'Miami of Korea,' highlighting its low poverty rate and high social media hashtag (#) ratio as indicators of the city’s high prosperity.

Additionally, Busan was introduced not only as the world’s fourth-largest container port but also as an emerging bleisure (business + leisure) city. The report also showed great interest in 'Oceanix Busan,' the world’s first maritime smart city.

The city explained that this announcement follows recent achievements such as ranking 6th among Asian happy cities by the UK economic analysis firm Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and being ranked 1st in Korea and 15th globally among 77 cities in the Global Smart City Index (SCI) by the global consulting firm Z/Yen, proving Busan’s competitiveness as a global hub city.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun said, “We are very pleased to be selected as one of the world’s top 100 cities desired by businesspeople, tourists, and locals alike, following our recognition as the 'most livable city' and the 'smartest city' in the world. We will continue our efforts to transform Busan into a global hub city attracting attention both domestically and internationally.”

Busan City Hall.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.