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On this Thanksgiving Eve, you might be expecting an attitude of gratitude from your columnist.
Well, were Honolulu’s attributes shown the deserved respect in the annual Travel + Leisure Favorite Cities poll, you might be reading happier words.
Honolulu did OK in the poll. Nevertheless, your columnist calls "shenanigans."
To borrow from an online meme so popular that President Barack Obama played along recently, TheBuzz, like Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney, "is not impressed."
The annual T+L poll has visitors and residents vote on a list now 35 cities long, rating each in various categories: People, Type of trip, Nightlife, Culture, Shopping, Food/Drink/Restaurants, Quality of life and visitor experience, and Best times to visit.
Honolulu got two top rankings and one second place, one third place and one fourth place out of our 42 top-10 rankings, but it’s where Honolulu didn’t get props that’s so troublesome, especially since the results seem riddled with ballot-stuffing.
We’re not going to call out any particular visitor and convention bureaus or tourism industry groups or anything.
Honolulu was ranked No. 1 for weather (we and San Diego usually duke it out for Nos. 1 and 2 and have often swapped places) and No. 1 for being the best place to visit in the winter.
Honolulu ranked No. 2 overall in the overarching category of Best times to visit. Yeah, take that, Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga., at Nos. 4 and 5, respectively.
You do detect a modicum of bitterness, given that the two cities outpolled Honolulu in categories that should have been wins for us, including overall quality of life and visitor experience (Honolulu was No. 11 in visitor voting and No. 15 in resident voting, whereas Savannah and Charleston were top-ranked in visitor and resident voting, respectively.)
In the People category’s subcategory of Charming local accent, Savannah and Charleston took the top spots in visitor and resident voting, while Honolulu ranked No. 7 among visitors and No. 12 among residents.
What, our accent not charming? Like beef o’ wat? Oh, perhaps that’s not so charming.
Charleston also got both visitors’ and residents’ No. 1 rankings in the Type of trip, Romantic escape subcategory, in which Honolulu was No. 3 among visitors and No. 5 among residents.
Oh, and Charleston got No. 1 ratings from both visitors and residents in the fine-dining category. Seriously? Shall we compare restaurants’ Michelin stars between Charleston and say, oh, New York City or Chicago or … well, you get the idea.
Ya gotta kinda give Charleston the No. 1 votes for Architecture/cool buildings, though.
At least Charleston got knocked out of its long-held No. 1 position for Friendliest people, but that could be due to online tally stuffing by aforementioned tourism industry bodies. Not saying who, but Nashville was No. 1 in visitor votes and New Orleans was No. 1 in resident votes. (Honolulu was ninth among visitors and No. 11 among resident voters.)
In fact, the reason ballot-stuffing seems so obvious is New Orleans’ 20 No. 1 wins by visitors and residents in the various categories and subcategories, which follow. People: Friendly; Offbeat; Sports-crazed; Proud of their city. Type of trip: Wild weekend; Girlfriend getaways. Nightlife: Overall; Happy hour; Music scene; Singles scene, Cocktail lounges. Culture: Street performers. Shopping: Overall; Independent boutiques; Antique stores; Flea markets. Quality of life and visitor experience: Lots of hotel options; People watching. Best times to visit: New Year’s Eve. Food/drink/restaurants: Cafes.
Cafes? Yeah. However, Seattle was ranked No. 1 for coffee by visitors, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, was ranked No. 1 for coffee among residents.
What remains a mystery is how San Juan could also win No. 1 for hamburgers among residents. They’re probably fine, but No. 1, really?
Shenanigans, see?
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On the Net:
» is.gd/McKaylaObama
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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
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