It's official: This is the world's most disappointing city

A company has analysed TripAdvisor reviews to reveal which cities leave tourists feeling disappointed. On the flip side, an Aussie city made the cut in the ten cities travellers are most pleasantly surprised by.

A company has analysed over 826,000 TripAdvisor reviews to reveal which cities leave tourists feeling underwhelmed and disappointed (and which leave them feeling pleasantly surprised).

Luggage company Radical Storage looked at reviews taken from 100 of the most popular city destinations in the world to find out where tourists experience Paris syndrome; a psychological condition where visitors to overly hyper or romantisised destinations become disappointed when they are faced with the reality of their vacation destination.

The study found that Orlando, USA, was the most negatively reviewed city.

Despite the fact that it is the home of Disney World, Orlando didn't rate with visitors. Picture: Getty

From over 9,000 reviews of Orlando, 1 in 5 were found to be negative. The city was also home to the most global mentions of how ‘disappointed’ visitors were, how ‘terrible’ they found the experience as well as how ‘rude’ people were there. 

New York City had the second-most global mentions of ‘rude’ people at tourist destinations.

According to a lot of TripAdvisor reviewers, New Yorkers are rude. Picture: iStock

The city most guilty of being ‘overrated’ was Da Nang, Vietnam holding 3.2 per cent of reviews mentioning the word, followed closely by Paris itself living up to the syndrome’s name. 

Close behind Orlando, 1 in 7 reviews for Jakarta, Indonesia were negative, followed by Pattaya, Thailand.

The full top ten list of cities that don't live up to expectations 

1. Orlando, USA
2. Jakarta, Indonesia
3. Pattaya, Thailand
4. Denpasar, Indonesia
5. Guilin, China
6. Johannesburg, South Africa
7. Da Nang, Vietnam
8. Ha Long, Vietnam
9. Shenzhen, China
10. Beijing, China

Another U.S. city, Honolulu, was found to be the 12th most disappointing destination with 8.85 per cent of reviews being negative. 

Honolulu: the 12th most disappointing destination.

Popular cities that exceed expectations 

The company also identified the cities that exceed people's expectations and become a surprise hit. And pleasingly, an Aussie city made the cut.

Analysing terms such as ‘pleasantly surprised’ or how ‘amazing’ a city was, the study found that Budapest, Hungary, had the highest percentage (96.17 per cent) of reviews containing positive comments, with the highest percentage of global reviews saying how ‘stunning’ and ‘beautiful’ the city is.

The Szechenyi Thermal Bath in Budapest, Hungary. Lots of people on TripAdvisor were pleasantly surprised by the destination.

Penang, Malaysia was where tourists were the most ‘pleasantly surprised’, with 2.3 per cent of global mentions of the phrase being used to review Penang tourist attractions. 

Behind Budapest, Brussels had the second-highest percentage of positive reviews (96.04 per cent), followed by Zurich.

Brussels had the second-highest percentage of positive reviews.

There were found to be no European cities in the top ten, but Berlin was the 18th most disappointing city, primarily driven by how the German capital has the world’s second most mentions for how ‘terrible’ the vacation experience is (behind Orlando).

The top ten cities that exceeded tourist’s expectations

1. Budapest, Hungary
2. Brussels, Belgium
3. Zurich, Switzerland
4. Dublin, Ireland
5. Lima, Peru
6. Lisbon, Portugal
7. Mexico City, Mexico
8. Nice, France
9. Auckland, New Zealand
10. Sydney, Australia

Originally published as It's official: This is the world's most disappointing city