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London has several qualities which make it a vital meeting point for global business. He stated: “London has yet again proved it is the epicentre of global trade and the best world city to do business with.”

London’s position was seen by London Mayor Boris Johnson as evidence of London’s continued global importance. The report’s premise is that international travel has positive, intricate effects on the local economy, fuelling not just tourism-related industries but transportation, retail, marketing and advertising. The world’s epicentres of economic power may be shifting, but it’s hard to imagine London ever losing its status as a crossroads for business and leisure travellers alike.Ī recent report, the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Global Destination Cities, measured the amount of international travel and cross-border expenditure in 132 cities and placed London first overall, with 20.1 million inbound passengers and cross-border spending of US$25.6 billion expected in 2011. It also presides over a country increasingly divided between North and South and over a neo-liberal form of globalization – the deregulation, financialization and commercialization of all aspects of life – that is resulting in an evermore unequal world.Are business and leisure travel indicative of a city’s importance on the world stage? On the tube to Heathrow Airport recently, I was struck by the array of languages and backgrounds around me: people from across the world, some involved in fast conversations in a language I didn’t understand and some sharing tips with fellow passengers. London is a city of delight and of creativity. World City focuses its account on London, one of the greatest of these global cities. In so doing, it sets the global city in its broader geographical and political context. The books also tells the story of the rise of a new class, of deepening inequality, and of the geographical imaginations that are mobilised to legitimate the increasing dominance of these powerful metropoles. These questions concern identity, place, and political responsibility in the changing geographies of our times. This book tells the story of one of them, and in so doing raises questions about all such cities. Cities around the world are striving to be ‘global’.