Perhaps the biggest surprise from a new Expedia survey ranking the friendliest towns in the country isn’t that Provincetown made the top 10, it’s that any town in Massachusetts made the list. People from the Bay State don’t enjoy a stellar reputation for being warm and congenial. In 2019, another survey ranked Massachusetts as one of the least friendly states in the country.
Maybe the Provincetown nod is a first step toward changing perceptions about Massachusetts and eventually residents here will no longer be called Masshol … oh wait, I don’t think I’m allowed to finish typing that word in a family newspaper.
Back to the study at hand. The Expedia survey came up with its list of the 20 friendliest towns in the United States based on the percentage of positive reviews a municipality received from travelers between January 2019 and December 2020, zeroing in on words such as “friendly” and “amiable.” The science here isn’t exactly New England Journal of Medicine worthy, but if the survey helps quash our state’s hostile reputation, then I’m completely on board.