Dear readers, how often does it happen that the town you call your home, is featured at a list of an internationally renowned magazine?
Well, it just happened to my city, and it came in on 3rd place!

Reflections at Kraanlei (in Ghent, Belgium)

This survey by the National Geographic Traveler Magazine “evaluates the qualities that make a destination unique, measuring “integrity of place.” It is not a popularity contest, but rather an assessment of authenticity and stewardship”. 
They look at “how well historic destinations are withstanding mass tourism, neglect, and wrecking balls—as well as the more subtle threat [...] of a place end[ing] up embalmed as a lifeless museum or Disneyfied into a cute parody of its true heritage”.
This means lesser-known places can often get higher ratings then places that already are touristic hotspots, and are showing the marks or that success.

The survey was done by “a panel of 280 well-traveled experts in a variety of fields”.
Those were asked to evaluate just the places with which they were familiar, and had not been surveyed in one of the previous surveys of the National Geographic Traveler Magazine (this is their 5th edition) using six criteria weighted according to importance:

• environmental and ecological quality
• social and cultural integrity
• condition of historic buildings and archaeological sites
• aesthetic appeal
• quality of tourism management
• outlook for the future

Go have a look at the complete list and the (rather short) review of Ghent!

For more information on this: National Geographic Traveler Magazine: Historic Destinations Rated