That’s according to a new survey…

When you’re confronted by incredible, often record-breaking, sights everyday, it’s easy to forget how awe-inspiring they can be. You may now scarcely look up as you pick your way through the tourists – enraptured by the dance of fountains and taking selfies with the Burj Khalifa – tutting at the minor inconvenience of it all. But there was a time, when you were one of them.

Dubai is a city so disproportionately rich in artefacts and landmarks of wow and wonder, that this latent apathy of the awesome becomes hard to shake. Sometimes we need to rely on outsiders to remind us. Hosting friends and family visiting from overseas for example, or research surveys conducted by the Premier Inn hotel chain…

Top of the shots

The team at Premier Inn have scoured the hashtag dataverse to come up with a list of the most tagged landmarks in the world. The places tourists are most keen to put a little flag in and proudly proclaim ‘I too have been here’. And guess who came top? In fact guess who took all of the top three spots? I mean it was Dubai obviously, I gave that bit of trivia away in the title, but which specific landmarks were they?

Dubai Mall, was the number one most hashtagged landmark – with 7.2 million mentions. At least some of which will have been ‘anyone know how far #DubaiMall is from the Metro Station?’ ‘why is there not a station between the #DubaiMall Metro Station and the mall?’ ‘on mile three of the Metro to #DubaiMall marathon, send water”.

Home to the world’s longest urban zipline, often referred to as ‘the Venice of Dubai’ or ‘Dubai’s Manhattan’, home to some of the tallest residential buildings in the world. Has a tram. Terrifies taxi drivers. Yes, in second place, it’s Dubai Marina with a little over 6 million ‘Gram tags.

In bronze position, it’s City Walk with more than 2.5 million Insta shout-outs. Highlights here of course include Coca-Cola Arena, brilliant brasserie – Rare, indoor rainforest Green Planet and the only grown-up choice for chicken shop dates, BonBird.

Tag, you’re it

What else made it into the top 15? Check out the list below:

Rank  Insta Landmark  City  Country  Continent  No. of Instagram #s 
1  Dubai Mall  Dubai  UAE  Asia  7,237,343 
2  Dubai Marina  Dubai  UAE  Asia  6,057,997 
3  Dubai CityWalk  Dubai  UAE  Asia  2,557,044 
4  Marina Bay Sands  Singapore  Singapore  Asia  2,137,573 
5  Ha Long Bay  Ha Long  Vietnam  Asia  1,277,216 
6  Gardens by the Bay  Singapore  Singapore  Asia  1,264,647 
7  Avenida Paulista  São Paulo  Brazil  South America  1,166,906 
8  Batu Caves  Gombak  Malaysia  Asia  1,028,911 
9  Wynwood Walls  Miami  USA  North America  966,407 
10  Cliffs of Moher  —  Ireland  Europe  737,968 
11   Park Güell  Barcelona  Spain  Europe  714,813 
12  Wadi Rum  —  Jordan  Asia  682,955 
13  Blue Mosque  Istanbul  Turkey  Asia  679,580 
14  Grand Bazaar  Istanbul  Turkey  Asia  643,723 
15  Hagia Sophia  Istanbul  Turkey  Asia  621,666 

Images: Getty