Conde Nast: Atlantic City One Of World’s Most Unfriendly Places

Atlantic City may have the cheapest airport in the country and some of the most authentic Vietnamese food around, but it’s also one of the most unfriendly cities in the world and in the U.S., according to two separate worst of lists published by Conde Nast Traveler. Close to 50,000 readers cast their votes in an annual readers’ choice poll.

On the worldwide list, A.C. was declared the world’s ninth most unfriendly city, topping Moscow (16) and Los Angeles (12). But unfriendly A.C. couldn’t keep up with the unfriendliness that is Detroit, Michigan (8), New Haven, Connecticut (7), Lome, Togo (6), Kuwait City (5), Luanda, Angola (4), Oakland, California (3), Islamabad, Pakistan (2), and Newark, New Jersey (1).

On the domestic list, A.C. was ranked in fifth place, beat out for the top spots by Detroit (4), New Haven (3), Oakland (2) and Newark (1).

Here’s what Conde Nast Traveler had to say about the results:

Readers seem to agree that Atlantic City is a fine place to gamble, but call it a ‘pale shadow of Las Vegas,’ saying it has no other attractions besides its casinos. Comments were split between fans and haters, but its low score comes out of perceptions such as this one: ‘The city as a whole is a dump, and you certainly don’t want to wander very far off the boardwalk especially at night,’ one reader says. Let’s hope that post-Sandy restoration efforts help boost this beach town back up.

“It’s reprehensible and wrong,” says Jeff Guaracino, chief strategy officer for the Atlantic City Alliance, the city’s equivalent of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (Guaracino’s former employer). “The same publication that called Philadelphia rude and ugly is now taking a shot at one of the Jersey Shore’s favorite towns. It’s a dumb PR strategy and an offense at every city that they take a cheap shot at. It’s shameless.”