Seoul finished a record-high 10th on this year's World's Best Cities Report of the Canada-based global consulting company Resonance. (Seoul Metropolitan Government's official Facebook)

By Hong Angie

Seoul is ranked among the world's top 10 cities.

The U.S. business magazine Forbes said the capital was 10th in the World's Best Cities report by Resonance Consultancy, a Vancouver, Canada-based global consulting company.

Since 2016, Resonance has analyzed evaluations of the environment and users in 270 major global cities each with a population of a million or more. The top 100 are selected based on their livability, popularity and prosperity.

The rankings go beyond livability and tourism attractions and picks cities liked by both visitors and entrepreneurs.

This year's list was supplemented through analysis of user evaluations, reviews and key data from Google, Facebook and Instagram.

No. 1 on this year's list was London, followed by Paris in second and New York third. The top-ranking Asian cities in the top 10 were Tokyo (fourth), Singapore (fifth) and Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (sixth).

Among Korean cities, the capital placed 10th and Busan 67th, attesting to their rise as global hubs.

"Riding the Hallyu wave, Seoul has firmly established itself as a global pop culture powerhouse," Resonance said. "As the Korean wave continues to crest and break in distant lands, this charismatic city is creating a new paradigm for culture and commerce, which in turn has thousands flocking to its shores."

"Seoul's popularity as a travel destination is ascendant post-pandemic, too. In 2022, it ranked as the fourth-most searched destination on Airbnb globally."

"In an astonishingly short span, South Korea’s capital has 180ed from war-ravaged city to high-tech hub," the report added. "Its e-governance system and Fourth Industrial Revolution are thriving, creating a digitally interconnected city on 5G and 6G networks." 

On Busan, Resonance called it the "Miami of South Korea" citing its high prosperity including a low poverty rate and high ratio of hashtags on social media.

shong9412@korea.kr