From Staff Reports 

NEW YORK, N.Y — Greenville, S.C., remained “on Travel & Leisure magazine’s popular list of top 10 U.S. Travel Destinations for the second year in a row — despite falling from the seventh spot to 10th,” the Upstate (S.C.) Post and Courier reported on July 7.

Meanwhile, Greenville’s long-time neighborning tourism archrival Asheville, N.C., finished 13th on the list. 

The list, part of NYC-based Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards, was compiled after asking readers to vote for their favorite destinations. More than 207,000 readers voted this year, according to the magazine. The list was released on July 7.

For Greenville, rather than a drop in quality, the dip to No. 10 is attributed to the shifting preferences of over 200,000 voters and increasing competition from heavily visited heavyweights across the country rather than a direct loss in quality, the magazine stated.

Despite the slight shift in the Travel + Leisure rankings, Greenville is still highly celebrated, even being named one of the Top 3 “America’s Best Towns to Visit” by CNN Travel.

Perspectives on Greenville from Travel + LeisureVisitors often commented on how much the city has transformed, evolving from a former mill town into a bustling, scenic destination.

‘It’s a far cry from the 1980s, when this spot was a hub for drugs and prostitution,” Russell Stall, executive director of the Greenville County Historical Society, told CNN Travel recently, adding that the river was called the “Rainbow Reedy” because of dyes and chemicals from the textile industry that polluted its waters.”

Travel + Leisure noted, “Once known as the ‘Textile Capital of the World,’ Greenville’s booming mills started to fall silent in the 1970s. Now, several former mills house loft apartments.”

Also, the T+L touted Greneville as follows:

 “This is the South’s most underrated city —with waterfalls, Michelin-starred restaurants, and Blue Ridge Mountain views...There are many cute places in the Carolinas, but this one might just take the cake.”