Mississauga falls out of top 100 ‘most loved’ destinations in the world

They say love can be a fleeting thing, and Mississauga has just learned that firsthand with the recent publishing of an online list that gives its take on the most loved travel destinations in the world.

After being recognized at No. 42 on the 100 Most Loved Travel Destinations list in 2022, Mississauga fell off the list entirely this year.

The annual list is compiled by a Vancouver-based firm using a tool known as the Tourism Sentiment Index (TSI), which ranks more than 21,000 communities worldwide by analyzing online conversations and publicly available content pieces.

The TSI liked Mississauga in 2022, ranking it among the top 50 spots in the world and No. 2 in Canada (Richmond, B.C. placed No. 34). No other Ontario location cracked that top 100 list.

This year for Mississauga, which boasts waterfront access along Lake Ontario and one of the most diverse populations in Canada, not so much.

It’s not known what, if any, specific factors knocked Canada’s seventh-largest city out of the top 100 in 2023. In all likelihood, it’s simply a random turn of events in which online conversations studied in the compilation of the latest rankings focused on other cities and parts of the world.

The top Canadian spot on the 2023 list is Fernie, B.C., which placed 73rd.

Niagara Falls (No. 81), Kelowna, B.C. (No. 84) and Canmore, Alberta (No. 95) rounded out the Canadian content on the top 100.

Maldives grabbed No. 1 in the rankings, while two Queensland, Australia communities placed second and third, Seychelles was No. 4 and a Victoria, Australia location rounded out the top five.

A third Queensland, Australia destination found its way into the top 10, placing No. 9.

Venice, Italy placed 10th on the list while the top North American hot spot was Palm Springs, California (No. 22).

The TSI was launched in 2018 as a way to quantify what visitors truly feel about major cities and regions around the globe.

Its data scientists say their information is collected from some 1.6 billion online conversations. The crux of the initiative is to try to give classic “word of mouth advertising” a numeric value.

“This is the metric that the tourism industry has been missing since the dawn of the internet,” the TSI website says. “Market research consistently shows that word of mouth is and always has been the predominant influence on the travel decision-making process.”