Not even the cold weather and a large college constituency can deter tourists from the Hub. According to a survey released by Travel + Leisure last week, Boston was ranked one of the nation’s favorite travel cities.
Out of 57 categories, visitors ranked Boston second for sports-crazed fans, third for Fourth of July celebrations, third for intelligence, third for classical music and fifth for historical sites and monuments.
However, tourists ranked Boston one of the nation’s worst cities for barbecue, driving ability and winter weather.
Some people said they were shocked about Boston’s rankings, even in the best categories.
“I’m surprised Boston didn’t rank number one in intelligence,” said Joanna Davidson, a Boston University anthropology professor, in an email interview.
She said she found Boston to be an “intelligent” city not only because of its abundance of universities and scholarly activity, but because Bostonians are well-informed, engaged in civic life, have intelligent things to say and are quick-witted.
“Even the most quotidian interactions are often full of banter and humor,” she said, “and that, to me, is one of the most important aspects of intelligence.”
Not everyone said they agreed that Boston is the most intelligent city.
BU journalism professor Elizabeth Mehren said there is a prevailing conceit in Boston that it is the Athens of America, and there are a lot of smart people.
“I’m here to tell you there’s lots of smart people in lots of places,” she said. “Yes, there are a lot of really smart people here, a lot of really great stuff takes place here – wonderful nourishment for the mind.”
She said that sometimes it is a bit insufferable to be so conceited, and that being knocked down “a couple pegs” is not a bad thing.
The city’s fifth-place ranking of historical sites and monuments disappointed some, such as Sam Jones, The Freedom Trail’s creative director.
“We did feel that we were terribly under ranked,” Jones said. “We think that we ought to be number one – Philadelphia might dispute that, but we certainly think that we ought to be number one.”
He said that other cites on the list have fantastic historical sites and did not want to take anything away from anyone, “but we’re proud of what we have and we definitely think we can compete with anyone in the country,” Jones said.
Others, such as historian Nathaniel Sheidley, director of public history for the Bostonian Society, said Boston did not deserve to rank higher on the list of historical sites.
“I guess the larger message may be that perhaps we’re in need of some refreshing where our historical monuments are concerned,” Sheidley said. “But The Freedom Trail is such a well known destination and is still one of the top destinations for historical tourism in the country.”
Other highlights of the survey include the fifth most tech-savvy city, the eighth best microbrew beer and, according to visitors, 31st place for friendliness.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
