New research has revealed the top cities in the UK for restaurants according to social media, and two Scottish destinations have come out on top.
With summer finally here and people across the country keen to make the most of the nicer weather, many will be looking to head into the city for a day out. Even if you're unable to afford an international trip, there is plenty to see and do in cities across Scotland and the UK — and plenty of good food to enjoy too.
As part of a new study, experts at business comparison site Bionic put together the Independent Restaurant Index, which reveals the cities that are social media's favourite when it comes to food.
The researchers analysed how much each city is posted about on social media platforms in terms dining out, looking at data such as the number of 'foodie' influencers on different platforms that post about independent restaurants and local venues — before assigning each city an overall score out of 100 per cent.
According to the research, Edinburgh is the most popular UK city across social media for restaurants. It came out on top with a score of 74.8 per cent, which is the highest average score in the UK when analysing all social media platforms.
TikTok was the highest-scoring platform for Edinburgh, with a score of 91.8 per cent, while Instagram scored favourably for the capital as well, with a high score of 89.8 per cent. There are currently over four million views of the #edinburghrestaurants hashtag on TikTok, and more than 40,000 posts on Instagram using #edinburghrestaurant.
The experts state that among the top food influencers in the city is TikTok user Pippa Perriam who runs the account @eatinburgh, which proudly showcases "hidden gems across Edinburgh and beyond" to nearly 50K followers.
The study also revealed another social media success for Scotland, as Glasgow ranks as the UK city with the highest restaurant presence on TikTok specifically — with two million views on TikTok for the #glasgowfood hashtag in the last seven days alone.
According to the research, @foodngemsglasgow is among the top accounts in the city on the social media platform, with over 100,000 followers and just under three million likes.
The third and final Scottish city to appear in the study is Aberdeen. Placing in the overall UK top 20, it was assigned a score of 61 per cent across all social media platforms.
More information about the study and its methodology can be found on the Bionic website.
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