North Not Grim For Foreign Tourists

World travellers clearly disagree with the old saying that it's grim up North''. For global tourists' top 10 list of best-rated UK destinations contains only two from the south of the country. Apart from London, in first place, and the Devon resort of Torquay (fourth), the list compiled from multiple TripAdvisor reviews, is dominated by destinations well away from southern England. Scottish capital Edinburgh is in second place in the best-UK table, with the Welsh seaside town Llandudno third, Liverpool fifth and Blackpool sixth. The rest of the top 10 is made up of Belfast (seventh), York (eighth), Keswick in the Lake District (ninth) and Glasgow (10th). In a table based on European destinations, London is third behind first-placed Istanbul and second-placed Prague. London is in sixth place in the world table, which is a drop from the third place achieved last year, although the UK capital has the distinction of having been in the top 10 for five successive years. Top world destination is Marrakech in Morocco, with Siem Reap in Cambodiasecond, Istanbul third and Hanoi in Vietnam fourth. Rome has dropped from second last year to seventh, while New York has failed to make the top 10 for the second year running. TripAdvisor spokesman James Kay said:In the UK, competition is fierce, with great value destinations like Llandudno and Blackpool more than holding their own against larger-city rivals.''