Three continents and 8 cities are providing some intense match ups in the Elite 8 after a competitive Sweet 16. Granada and Lisbon battle in a war on the Iberian Peninsula and the results of Casablanca versus Buenos Aires determine whether Africa or South America ends its run in this year’s tournament. All of the Elite 8 will need your votes in a short round that ends this Wednesday, March 20th at 6pm US EST.

Voting in the Elite 8 is open until 6pm US EST this Wednesday, March 20th and the Final Four comes around hours later on Thursday. Those of you reading through email and RSS will have to click-through to this page to vote.

The Best City Visit To Travel Tournament 2013 Elite 8 brackets.

The cities in red who’ve been eliminated and the 8 in green who are vying for a spot in the Final Four.

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Please keep in mind the final votes for any poll aren’t final until they’re verified by my diligent verification team. The Final Four continues on with the survivors of this round on Thursday, March 20th.

We said a surprising goodbye to last year’s champion Sarajevo in The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament Round of 32 earlier this week. Winning on a tie-breaking decision, Cape Town averted defeat to face Bucharest and Rosslyn’s dedicated effort came to an end. Sibiu continues along comfortably while quietly Casablanca and Buenos Aires are marching forward. This Sweet 16 is an extremely competitive one so I don’t expect there to be any easy victories.

Voting in the Sweet 16 is open until 6:00pm US EST this Monday, March 18th. Those of you reading through email and RSS will have to click-through to this page to vote.

The Best City Visit To Travel Tournament 2013 Sweet 16 brackets.

Please keep in mind the final votes for any poll aren’t final until they’re verified by my diligent verification team. The Elite 8 continues on with the survivors of this round on Tuesday, March 19th.

There were several close races to the end of the Second Round of The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2013. Dublin squeezed past Bangkok with 3 votes while Tunis was eliminated by one. A few countries mounted social media campaigns, like Romania, whose Sibiu and Bucharest comfortably made it to this Round of 32. Reader Dino also noted a crazy turn (and error on my part) in which Baku competed twice. It all balanced out however and didn’t change the outcome of any races or the tournament. Now keep in mind that the Round of 32 is a fast sprint – don’t hesitate to vote and spread the word for your favorite cities. Are you a Chicago or Boston supporter? Can New York City hold off the Stockholm vikings? We’ll find out before Thursday.

Half of these 32 cities will be eliminated within 48 hours. You have until this Wednesday, March 13th 18:00 US EST to vote for your favorites and decide the cities that advance on to the Sweet 16. Also, please excuse the captchas you have to enter before each vote, they help reduce spam and other Internet clogging junk from the contest. Those of you reading through email and RSS will have to click-through to this page to vote. Good luck!

Many of you have been asking for advice on how to gather support and votes for the cities you’re rooting for. Based on what I’ve seen from the 4 previous contests, getting in touch with the government agencies, tourism boards, and other entities already representing your favorite cities can help push them further. A tweet, Facebook message, or the proper smoke signal might just make your city the best in the world.

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Please keep in mind the final votes for any poll aren’t final until they’re verified by my diligent verification team. The Sweet 16 comes around quickly this Thursday, March 14th.

Only 32 of these 64 cities will advance to the next round of The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2013 based on your votes. You have until Monday, March 11th – 6pm US EST to select your favorite cities in each of the match ups below. Those of you reading through email and RSS will need to click-through to this page to vote. Best of luck to you all!

These are the final 64 cities competing to be named, by you, The Best City To Visit in 2013. There were some very tight races, with Seoul slipping past Manaus and Jerusalem falling to Pattaya, to round out the remaining cities in the First Round. Now however, throughout the rest of The Best City to Visit Travel Tournament, no city is safe and any one can be eliminated from round to round, as you can see in the brackets above. We’ll see which 32 remain by next Tuesday, March 12th – so vote and rally your supporters early!

Below is a map of the latest cities (in red) to be eliminated and those still competing (green).

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Please keep in mind the final votes for any poll aren’t final until they’re verified by my diligent verification team – and any races that are still tied at the deadline are broken by me. The cities that survive will go on to compete in the Round of 32, which begins next Tuesday, March 12th.

Submit your votes before Wednesday, March 6th at 2pm US EST in each of the 10 match ups below. Those votes will determine the 64 cities that will compete in the Second Round later this week. Those of you reading through email and RSS will have to click-through to this page to vote.

During last Thursday’s Preliminary voting, 54 cities gathered enough votes to skip the First Round and take a comfortable seat in the Second Round of The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2013. (The cities with the most votes were matched up with those with the least in the preliminaries.) You can see those cities in the tournament bracket below, yet there are 20 more cities waiting to compete. Today we’ll begin the month long process of elimination. If your favorite city is already on a bracket line and not in the polls below, it’s safe until this coming Thursday. Vote below to choose the 10 cities out of this group of 20 that will complete the next round of 64.

• Keep in mind this is a very quick round – I’ve got to get the Second Round prepared before taking a transatlantic flight to Mexico so don’t put off your vote and click!

Please keep in mind the final votes for any poll aren’t final until they’re verified by my diligent verification team. Those of you who were able to skip the First Round, be prepared, everyone is up for elimination on Thursday, March 7th in the Second Round.

Vote for your favorite 10 cities below before this Sunday, March 3rd at 23:59 US EST. Those of you reading through email and RSS will have to click-through to this page to vote.

These are the cities you selected to compete in the 2013 Best City To Visit Travel Tournament. This round of voting won’t eliminate any cities – the final results are what I use to order (seed) each of the cities in the tournament brackets. Almost every year, the cities that do the best in the Preliminary Round tend to advance further in the tournament. (So don’t neglect getting a solid head start!) The 56 cities with the highest votes in this round will automatically advance to the Round of 64. Good luck to you all!

The first elimination round begins next Tuesday, March 5th and I’ll be revealing the The City To Visit Travel Tournament brackets the day before on my Facebook page.

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May the best city win!