Dubai has been named as the ninth best city in the world to visit next year by the travel experts at Lonely Planet.
The "boundary pushing" emirate is listed in the Top 10 cities for travellers in Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2020, a yearly curation of destinations and experiences in travel covering the next twelve months.
“The future is now in Dubai” says the guide giving a nod to some of the emirate’s big-hitter events due to take place next year.
“Top billing, of course, goes to the six-month-long World Expo 2020,” says the guide. The Museum of the Future and The World's European-themed offshore playground also get credit for the city’s ranking in the top 10.
Taking the top slot on Lonely Planet's list is Salzburg. The Austrian city is pulling out all the stops as it celebrates 100 years of its annual Salzburg festival. Travellers hitting up the festivites can expect “one of the world’s greatest classical music shindigs” says Lonely Planet.
Washington DC is listed in second place. The District is set to commemorate the 100th anniversary of introducing the 19th Amendment - the law that finally gave American women the right to vote and is also going to be in the spotlight as the next US presidential election gets underway.
Egypt’s Cairo is the third top city to visit next year with credit given to the much-anticipated opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, a state-of-the art treasure of historical troves that is set to become the world’s largest one-civilisation-focused museum. The country’s new Sphinx Airport, located near the Cairo-Alexandria desert road, also gets a mention as being a handy hub for tourists at the Red Sea or in Luxor to add a pyramids/museum stop on to their itineraries.
Bohemian Galway in Ireland and Germany’s Bonn, which celebrates Beethoven's 100th birthday, round out the top five in Lonely Planet’s list and Bolivia’s La Paz is the sixth most recommend destination to visit next year.
India’s Kochi – which will host the contemporary Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2020 – is ranked in seventh place while Canada’s Vancouver squeezes in ahead of Dubai. Denver’s creative efforts score the USA city the final spot in the world’s best cities to visit next year.
