Edinburgh is only British city named in top 25 global destinations

• Edinburgh came 21st in the poll

But now it has been truly knocked off its perch by Edinburgh which is revealed today as the only UK city featuring in the world's top 25 favourite places to visit in the world.

A poll of millions of travellers put Edinburgh, with its iconic and dramatic castle dominating the skyline, cobbled streets steeped in history and on-trend shopping, on the list of the most sought-after destinations in the world.

The TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Destinations 2010 survey, based on online reviews and opinions, ranked Edinburgh in 21st place in the world list.

The world's top three destinations, according to the poll, were Monte Carlo, Heidelberg in Germany and the Austrian city of Salzburg.

Lamenting London's fall from grace, Emma Boyle, spokeswoman for TripAdvisor, said: "Millions of travellers around the world have spoken and this will serve as a stark wake-up call to London in particular, which failed to make it into the top 25 global or European destination tables. London is one of the greatest cities in the world but with the Olympics just two years away there is clearly still work to do to convince travellers that England's capital is a world-class tourist destination."

Tom Campbell, chief executive of Essential Edinburgh, a company whose aim is to improve the city centre as a business, shopping and visitor destination, said he was not surprised by the city's TripAdvisor rating.

He said: "The volume of tourists which come to this city is phenomenal and I suspect a lot of it is word of mouth. Edinburgh has a lot of uniqueness which is not shared by somewhere like London. Apart from its history, architectural uniqueness and shopping it has more of an 'openness' and ease of accessibility which you could argue that somewhere like London lacks because it is too overwhelming.

"On a weekend or city break to Edinburgh you could satisfy everything you wanted to see and do which the city is highlighted for. The whole microcosm of Scottish history is contained in the city. In effect, the city has created its own brand."

Barbara Clark, head of communications at VisitScotland, the tourism agency, said: "After the attractions of the city's history and shopping, the one thing which gives the city its cachet and which people always mention are the international festivals spread across the year.

"There's absolutely no doubt the festivals are a huge international draw. They get people talking about the city, and they see it at its best whether it is theatre groups, book or jazz fans in the summer or people coming to the winter festival. There is tremendous television worldwide coverage too of the Hogmanay celebrations."

Global travellers also ranked Edinburgh's nightlife as being in the European top ten. The city came in seventh place ahead of Paris, Mykonos and Hamburg.

Asked to name their top UK destinations, European travellers put Edinburgh first, followed by Brighton, York, London and Liverpool.

• Nairn came ninth in another section of the poll looking at top emerging destinations for global travellers. Top was Garmisch-Partenkirch in Germany.

World's top 25 destinations

1 Monte-Carlo, Monaco

2 Heidelberg, Germany

3 Salzburg, Austria

4 Florence, Italy

5 Lucerne, Switzerland

6 Tokyo, Japan

7 Venice, Italy

8 Siena, Italy

9 Rome, Italy

10 Hamburg, Germany

11 Sydney, Australia

12 Amsterdam, The Netherlands

13 San Francisco, United States

14 Prague, Czech Republic

15 Queenstown, New Zealand

16 Berlin, Germany

17 St Petersburg, Russia

18 Munich, Germany

19 Stockholm, Sweden

20 Barcelona, Spain

21 Edinburgh, United Kingdom

22 Copenhagen, Denmark

23 Bruges, Belgium

24 Victoria, Canada

25 Cape Town, South Africa