Here’s some news to get fired up about (and we promise it won’t send you to sleep). A highly controversial new study has ranked the top 100 most boring tourist attractions in the world – and they reckon seven are right here in Australia.
The research carried out by online gaming company Solitaired looked at 66.7 million Google reviews from 3,290 attractions in 71 countries and 384 cities. Rather than using Google star ratings, they based their rankings on attractions with the highest number of keywords mentioned that were synonymous with the word “boring”, such as “tiresome”, “dull” and “drab.”
The first red flag in this study is that Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), once hailed as the world’s best modern art gallery by Lonely Planet, was named in the list. On a scale of zero to five, MONA received a boredom score of 1.90, placing it at number 76. This colossal and futuristic museum may not be for everyone, but it sure is the crown jewel of our modern art scene and easily makes Time Out’s very own list of the top tourist attractions in Australia. We’re not the only ones who think so too, as MONA scores an average of 4.4 stars on Google based on more than 10,000 reviews worldwide.
All up, Australia trailed behind the US and Canada with the third-highest number of attractions on the most boring list. The highest snooze fest points in Australia went to WA Museum Boola Bardip (meaning “many stories in the language of the Nyoongar people native to the area), which ranked in at number 16. Perth popped up twice on the list with the city’s Bell Tower, one of the world’s largest musical instruments, ranking 92nd.
Apparently, everything is not awesome, as four Legoland Discovery Centres made it into the top 25 of the world’s most boring attractions, with Melbourne’s coming in at 24th. Our Victorian capital had the most boring attractions out of any Aussie state with Melbourne’s Immigration Museum ranking 52 and Luna Park taking out the 82nd spot.
If it makes you feel any better, US attractions took up the top seven places and a total 62 of the 100 places mentioned. You can find out who made the top 100 most boring attractions list here and see the list of Australian attractions below:
16. WA Museum Boola Bardip, Perth
24. Legoland Discovery Centre, Melbourne
32. Museum of Sydney
52. Immigration Museum, Melbourne
76. MONA, Hobart
80. Luna Park, Melbourne
92. The Bell Tower, Perth
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