Manchester Is Hotter Than Miami

Manchester Skyline

When people think of Manchester the first thing that usually springs to mind is football, then perhaps the music scene, and quite often grey skies and rain. So it comes as somewhat of a surprise that it appears in the top twenty of the New York Times’ top twenty list of ‘must see’ destinations, ahead of Zanzibar, Budapest and Miami.

Manchester United Football Team

The newspaper compiled a list of ‘The 41 Places To Go in 2011’ and Manchester managed to sneak in there at a very respectful number 20, just behind Hyderabad in India. The north western city was described as ‘an industrial city reinventing its famed music past’ and was complimented on transforming itself from a ‘cold, gritty factory city to thriving cultural hub’.

The New York Times readers were advised to visit venues such as FAC251, the former home of Factory Records and now a brand new and exciting Indie rock and roll club, and also the Deaf Institute on Grosvenor Street, a popular café, bar and music hall venue.

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London came in at number 7 with the Royal Wedding in April 2011, and the Olympic games in 2012 making it an extremely popular attraction with American tourists.

Santiago in Chile took top spot on the list, despite being in recovery from a devastating earthquake in 2010; it is proving itself to be cultural, artistic and growing in culinary stature.

San Juan Islands located close to Vancouver and Seattle came in second and the beautiful Koh Samui in Thailand claimed third place.

Managing Director of Visit Manchester, Paul Simpson, said “The New York Times has told its millions of readers around the world something we already knew – Manchester is a world class tourist destination.”

Councillor Pat Karney agreed and added “Americans are only a flight away and what I think they will love the most is the Mancunians themselves.”