This is the result of the 2010 study of the German Institute for Service Quality and German news TV station "n-tv". Subject of this study was the information quality, friendliness and response time of queries of city official touris institutions like tourist information bureau, museums, public transport information offices etc. Düsseldorf came in 2nd, Dresden 3rd. But a general comment at the end of the report also says: All German cities and towns could do more to even better accommodate guests and visitors.
"Mein Leipzig lob ich mir" yup, even Goethe agreed that this is a great city. I hope I can get back next spring to take in a concert with Herbert Groenemeyer (btw he wrote the soundtrack for George Clooney's "The American") and tour the city with my favourite private tour guide ;-)
This is certainly positive news for Leipzig, which gives me more reason for going back to that Kulturstadt to do a more thorough visit than what I have seen there, mainly the Voelkerschlachtdenkmal and the train station. I would have thought Munich, Hamburg, or Berlin had gotten Leipzig's distinction.
JS Bach and Felix Mendelssohn must be smiling.
I hope the "Tourist Info" employees in Frankfurt read this. They are some of the rudest people in the service industry I have ever come across. I hear constant complaints about them from tourists. They will do things like sell a 2 day museum pass on a Sunday and neglect to inform the tourist that the museums are closed on Mondays, making that 2nd day paid for a total waste of money. Heck, they even charge for their city maps when in every other city they are free. They often have no idea where things are or how to get there, they hardly ever smile, they only have "City of Frankfurt" tours on offer instead of all the other companies offering tours, and they close at 17:00. The city center will be absolutely packed with visitors on a pleasant evening, but the TI is closed. Even their ho-ho buses stop running at 17:00! They just don't really seem to be there for visitors, to increase the quality of a visit to Frankfurt. Which explains why so many people leave Frankfurt with a less than exciting opinion of the city.