New York, Paris and Singapore leading the chart
Your brand reputation in AI is becoming increasingly important — for cities that want to attract tourists too. More and more travellers start their search for a city break or business trip on AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity. These systems play a crucial role in comparing and recommending destinations, often before travellers read a website or any other information.
25 most visited cities
Out of personal curiosity, we wanted to know the AI reputation of the world's most famous cities. How are those cities rated, compared and recommended by leading AI systems? And does AI brand perception differ from the number of visitors a city attracts each year?
With those questions in mind, we selected the 25 most visited cities from visitorsperyear.com, a site that tracks annual visitor numbers for destinations worldwide. We had AIRepScore rank the 25 cities and then compared the top 5 in detail.
Top 25 market ranking
New York City leads the ranking with an AIRepScore of 88.7, followed by Paris, Singapore, Tokyo and Dubai. These cities excel through a combination of clarity, authority and a consistent image across AI algorithms. Although London, Mecca and Bangkok also score strongly on AI reputation, New York stands out in particular with an Authority score of 97/100.
What stands out are the differences between AI ratings and the visitor numbers cities attract each year. Bangkok attracts nearly three times as many visitors as New York, yet New York ranks seven places higher in AI brand perception.
| # | City | AIRepScore | Brand Perception Score | Annual Visitors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York City | 88.7 | 64.8 | 13.6M (#7) |
| 2 | Paris | 86.6 | 70.8 | 19.1M (#3) |
| 3 | Singapore | 84.8 | 69.7 | 14.7M (#5) |
| 4 | Tokyo | 81.2 | 67.2 | 12.9M (#9) |
| 5 | Dubai | 77.3 | 70.3 | 16.7M (#4) |
| 6 | London | — | — | 20.1M (#2) |
| 7 | Mecca | — | — | 10.2M (#13) |
| 8 | Bangkok | — | — | 25.8M (#1) |
| 9 | Rome | — | — | 7.4M (#21) |
| 10 | Barcelona | — | — | 8.2M (#16) |
| 11 | Las Vegas | — | — | 7.5M (#20) |
| 12 | Bali | — | — | 7.9M (#19) |
| 13 | Istanbul | — | — | 13.4M (#8) |
| 14 | Amsterdam | — | — | 7.2M (#22) |
| 15 | Prague | — | — | 6.9M (#25) |
| 16 | Seoul | — | — | 11.9M (#11) |
| 17 | Hong Kong | — | — | 8.4M (#14) |
| 18 | Miami | — | — | 8.2M (#15) |
| 19 | Phuket | — | — | 11.5M (#12) |
| 20 | Macau | — | — | 7.1M (#23) |
| 21 | Kuala Lumpur | — | — | 13.8M (#6) |
| 22 | Cairo | — | — | 7.0M (#24) |
| 23 | Antalya | — | — | 12.4M (#10) |
| 24 | Palma de Mallorca | — | — | 8.1M (#17) |
| 25 | Pattaya | — | — | 8.0M (#18) |
AI perception bias?
Western cities such as Las Vegas, Amsterdam, Rome and Prague score noticeably higher in AI ratings than their rank by annual visitor numbers would suggest. Asian cities show the opposite pattern. This may point to bias in the mostly Western AI-models used to compile the ranking.
A comparison between Perplexity (US) and DeepSeek (China) largely contradicts that assumption: both models rate Western cities higher than Asian ones, but DeepSeek does so even slightly more than Perplexity. Differences are larger when you look at individual cities. Amsterdam ranks fifth in DeepSeek but fourteenth in Perplexity. Prague ranks five places lower in DeepSeek. It shows how important it is to measure across multiple AI models in AI perception research.
| Region | Perplexity avg. rank | DeepSeek avg. rank |
|---|---|---|
| Western (Americas + Europe) | 10.7 | 10.0 |
| Asia-Pacific + Middle East | 16.2 | 17.0 |
Same 25-city market-ranking methodology; lower average rank = higher position.
Top 5 comparison — AIRepScore & Brand Perception
Below we compare New York City with the four other market leaders on dimension scores, competitive positioning and the associations AI systems attach to each city. This makes strategic differences visible.
New York leads with an impressive AIRepScore of 88.7, driven by a very high authority score and strong cross-model recognition. Although it ranks last among its peers on brand perception, it maintains a lead over Paris, Singapore, Tokyo and Dubai. New York's biggest gap versus the other cities is affordability, where it scores 29 compared with peers scoring up to 51.
Competitive positioning map
New York also emerges as the leader on the competitive positioning map, with a robust mix of authority and trust at 88.8 and a high innovation score of 79.6. The city distinguishes itself from peers such as Paris and Tokyo, which lag on both metrics. New York owes its top position partly to outpacing Singapore on authority and Dubai on innovation.
Authority & Trust (vertical) vs. Traditional ↔ Innovative (horizontal). Largest bubble: highest AIRepScore in the comparison.
Brand Perception radar
New York leads on AIRepScore with an impressive 88.7, driven by strong premium positioning and reliability, although it lags behind peers on affordability and sustainability. Paris and Singapore excel on reliability and sustainability respectively — areas where New York City could strengthen its brand perception to maintain its leading position.
Top 3 cities by AIRepScore from the full comparison (not market rank order).
Association comparison
New York is spontaneously associated by AI as an "iconic global destination" and "global capital", underscoring its status as a world hub. Paris and Singapore are associated more narrowly with artistic prestige and multicultural harmony respectively. New York City is also seen as a dream destination and symbol of global significance. Whether this image has shifted due to recent political developments in the United States is not yet visible — we will repeat this analysis regularly.
Dominant associations from Brand Perception scan — top 3 by AIRepScore; font size reflects relative strength.
Methodology
This report ranks the world's 25 most visited cities by their reputation in AI. The top five cities were then compared using the full AIRepScore framework (GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini, Mistral, Perplexity + Live Web Signal) and Brand Perception scans. The analysis was conducted on 24 and 25 June 2026.
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