I know lots of sites do these "best of" awards, but Conde Nast is legit, it isn't just a clickbait site with phoney baloney lists. It is based entirely on traveller submissions, not just one editor's mood that day. it is very significant to score top marks like Victoria did, especially looking at their competition (ahem.. Puerto Vallarta, Florence Italy, San Sebastian Spain, all massive for tourists and enormously popular, not easy to beat these especially when travellers get the vote and these cities get far more tourism numbers). Very encouraging to see that level of international recognition. And TBH, the "Britishness" of the city is exaggerated far more than the reality now. The High Tea aside, it isn't screamingly British actually, it's just what people liked to say historically and it stuck. Yes there's the double deckers and probably other links here and there. But overall it doesn't seem like England at all really. So it didn't win just because of it being a "piece of England in Canada", that's ridiculous, it's just one part of the city. Nature, First Nations, and Canadian history seem much more prominent to me, and probably for a lot of people. Especially with the immense growth and cityscape changes over the last decade or so, it isn't relying on some faint association with British architecture or whatever, it is an identity of its own. There is definitely way more truth to Quebec City being called a 'little slice of Europe' in North America. The city has its own identity and isn't some clone of a European city or anything, but just how extensive and well preserved its historic centre is makes it unique. So QC would have a hard time denying its historic European-esque cityscape is a major tourist driver, far more than Victoria as a "slice of Britain".
For some reason when I hear the Victoria/British thing being emphasized, I think of tacky places like Leavenworth WA. For those who don't know, it's the central Washington town that decided to internationally look like Germany and became like a living theme park or something bizarre, by choice! But tons of people check it out, people are fascinated by the oddity of it being entirely modeled on Germany (Kimberley BC did the same thing, but doesn't seem as theme park-ish as Leavenworth for some reason). And the city of Solvang in California to a slightly lesser extent; it's like a Danish village, windmills all over, just very
historic Danish (not the newer bolder architecture or clean design we now associate with Scandinavia, rather the old timey days). The reason it's
slightly less cringe than Leavenworth is because Solvang has deep Danish history, it was settled by them (obv. only referring to post-Colombian settler history, not counting indigenous history). But the odd thing is, even though there was a legit Danish history and link, the Danish architecture and "theme park" design overall into Denmark was not started by the Danish settlers, they didn't arrive and build in the Danish style at all. It was introduced, like Leavenworth, in the post war period,
long after the bulk of Danish settlement. So that's why it's cringe, yes they do have a Danish heritage, but the forced, unnatural architecture is all made up for tourists. Per the Wikipedia article:
Buildings in the half-timbered style of Danish rural houses proliferated, creating a new tourist attraction.[8] While much was done to create an "authentic" Danish atmosphere in the town center, it has been pointed out by Scandinavians that fake thatched roofs and artificial timbering are largely a result of local interests in general rather than those of the Danish immigrants themselves. The older buildings have simply been restyled to look Danish even if there was nothing Danish about them originally
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvang,_California
At least Leavenworth is in an alpine environment (same with Kimberley) so the Alpian village feel isn't that far fetched, despite being fictitious. But historic Denmark in Southern California, with no rain, always sunny, always warm (and often hot!)??? Barf, so weird. Just a giant theme park to me, sad that it was city councils that actually endorsed and drove these plans. To be so down and out that the suggestion to turn into a gimmicky stage set was the way to go? And to have tourists come and gawk and take photos like it's some exhibit, it's embarrassing to me. So that's probably why I choose to downplay the British thing with Victoria, I know it's harmless but I am glad the city seems to be getting off that schtick and being more itself.
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