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28 March 2024

International glam-off: Dubai's 'swank rank' higher than New York

Published
By Staff

In a face-off between popular international destinations for tourists, Dubai beats New York and Cancun on the ‘swank’ factor.

Now what on earth is a swank factor is a logical question to ask at this stage… Well, according to the makers of the Swankometer (what, it’s a real word), there’s a whole lot of science mixed with some bit of art behind it.

Oh, and there’s also math.

Here is how DealChecker.co.uk, the website behind the rankings, elaborates how it arrives at the Swank rank: “Firstly, we delved into our considerable plethora of data to find out which destinations had you lot searching for five-star luxury, and secondly, we decided on three main ‘Points of Swank’, which are: the destination’s celebrity pulling power, the fabulousness of its scenery and how cosmopolitan its bar, restaurant and cultural scene is.

“We then rated the destinations based on each of these criteria. The results of both tests were diverse to say the least. On your marks, get set…Swanky!”

And why did Dealchecker.co.uk, which claims to distribute their ‘real deals’ newsletter to 1.2 million subscribers every week, decide to conduct the ranking? Well, to settle a fierce ‘office debate’ in a civilised manner, it says.
“Which holiday destination is the swankiest of them all?

This was the subject of some fierce office debate last week, so to put it to rest, we settled on two methods to figure it out once and for all.

“We chose six glamorous destination and pitted them against each other in a high-stakes glamour-off!” the online deals site says.

All right then, ranking, ranking on the web-mall, who’s the swankiest of them all?

It’s Dubai, of course, along with London that gather a total swank rating of 13 out of a possible 15 to emerge joint winners. New York and Cancun come a close joint-third with a total swank rating of 12 out of 15 for both, while the Maldives rounds up the top 5 with a total swank rating of 11 out of 15.

With a mere 7 out of 15 points, Sharm Al Sheikh makes up the bottom of the rankings despite topping the five-star-hotels-search parameter, as per DealChecker.co.uk’s rankings.

Dubai in fact scores 5/5 on its celebrity pulling power, with the deals site maintaining that “it’d probably be quicker to list the celebrities who haven’t been to this glittering metropolitan desert gem” than to list who all have been here.

“From J Lo to Salma Hayek, George Clooney to Brad Pitt, it’s not short of equally glittering visitors,” it says in the report. Dubai also garners all the points on the site’s ‘Cosmopolitan Claims’ parameter.

“Gleaming super malls. Stunning Michelin-starred restaurants. Tennis courts on top of hotels. Glossy nightclubs and plenty of glamorous people to soak all that splendour up – yep, we’d say it’s pretty much on the money when it comes to high-octane swankiness,” DealChecker.co.uk says about Dubai, granting it 5/5 rating on this parameter.

Where Dubai loses 3 points (and gets only 2 out of a possible 5) is the ‘Scenery-to-die-for’ parameter.

“Sorry Dubai – you’re just not as pretty as some of our other contenders.

“However, for sheer drama and a seriously ambitious approach to architecture, you score highly – you have built the highest building in the world after all – so we’ll let that slide,” the site says.

Wait till the emirate gives the finishing touch to the Dubai Canal is all we’ll say here.