America's millionaires have voted Sydney the best city in the world for the third year running.
And while Sydney scoops up the prestigious gong at an exclusive ceremony in New York next week, Melbourne has been left languishing one again.
With Sydney at the top of the pile, beating Rome and Florence into second or third place, Melbourne was sitting in 37th position, a long way behind Fez in Morocco and only just ahead of Krakow in Poland.
It is the seventh time in the past nine years that the affluent readers of America's biggest-selling travel magazine, Travel + Leisure, have rated Sydney the world's top city.
Nathan Lump, the magazine's features editor, said: "Clearly this is a terrific honour for the city."
The American Express-owned magazine has almost a million subscribers with an average of $US 120,000 and a median wealth of almost $US 1 million.
US tourists spent $1 billion in Australia last year.
Mr Lump said: "These are people who take, on average, four foreign trips a year and they are comparing Sydney with places like Paris, London, New York and Rome.
"I think it says a lot that Sydney has held up as the world's best city for seven out of the nine years we have been conducting this survey."
Sydney lost out in 2000 and 2001, to San Francisco and Florence.
Mr Lump said Sydney's consistent place at the top of the world rankings meant the city was evolving to meet the needs of the travel market.
The magazine's other survey - to find the best hotel, island, airline, cruise line and resort - constantly provided new winners, while the best city remained the same.
"The survey looks at six categories for each city: sites and action, culture and arts, restaurants and food, people, shopping and value," Me Lump said.
"Sydney is very strong on its people but it does not have one weak spot."
- The Sun-Herald, Sydney.
