It may only be October, but the time has come, folks: London’s halls are beginning to be decked with tinsel and twinkling lights, ready for the upcoming festive season. And apparently it’s not just the capital city that has Christmas on the brain. Digital marketing agency, Hennessy Digital, are well-and-truly ready for Santa Claus to come to town, as they’ve just conducted an entire new study to find out where in the world is the most popular Christmas destination. Spoiler alert: it’s London.
Compiling a list of 700 major citiesthe study analysed Instagram hashtag data to identify the world’s most popular wintery wonderland. Hennessy searched for relative hashtags by combining each city name with the word ‘Christmas’. The top five related hashtags for each city were then clustered together, the numbers were crunched like a box of Fox’s Christmas biscuits, and the most popular festive cities were determined. A foolproof method, I’m sure you’ll agree…
London came out as the shiny star on the top of the Christmas tree with a rather remarkable 245,266 Christmas-related Instagram posts. Renowned for its dazzling lights, iconic festive events, memorable markets, and impressive (and slightly less-impressive) Christmas trees; London seems to drum up quite a seasonal buzz on social media. And we can’t say we’re surprised; we think London is wonderful all-year-round, but Christmas in the capital really is something special.
Edinburgh came in second place, boasting 135,761 festive posts and and Toronto secured the third spot with 113,447. Almost half of the top ten most popular Christmas destinations in the world are actually in the UK, with Manchester in fourth place, and Bath in ninth. The UK is truly flying the festive flag on social media, with destinations from the very top of the country to the very bottom being celebrated for their rich Christmassy traditions.
The top 10 Christmas destinations (according to Instagram):
- London, UK
- Edinburgh, UK
- Toronto, Canada
- Manchester, UK
- New York, USA
- Perth, Australia
- Dubai, UAE
- Chicago, USA
- Bath, UK
- Vancouver, Canada
