Feature: Is Vancouver a "boring city" ?

Vancouverites are feeling defensive this week after being labeled by The Economist magazine as a mind-numbingly boring city that has become too safe and predictable.

A travel columnist under the name Gulliver argued on the magazine that as cities become nicer and more stable, the less fun they become. Vancouver routinely tops international livability indexes and therefore is a "boring city."

But Bob Kronbauer, who has been running the Vancouver Is Awesome blog for seven years, told Xinhua Friday that Gulliver can leave Vancouver to the rest of us.

Kronbauer's team has published thousands of stories singing the praises of this coastal city in west Canada.

"Fifteen thousand stories, we've ran about different awesome things happening." he said.

"Right now in the city, the craft beer movement is pretty exciting. A lot of really cool restaurants are popping up as always. And the outdoors - how easy it is for you to get somewhere like Grouse Mountain, or somewhere like that, but also just how green the city itself is."

Vancouver may be clean, orderly -- and certainly expensive -- but its Pacific Coast setting nestled under the Coast Mountains makes it a beautiful location with many outdoor attractions.

Carol Heeney, a tourist visiting Vancouver, said she didn't agree with what the Economist said about Vancouver.

"Well, I disagree that it's boring. I think it's very exciting and there're lots of activity. People are biking everywhere. We were down at Kitsilano beach, and there's so much activity going down there."

The overall tourism numbers to Vancouver suggest that the city of about 2.5 million indeed remains a world-class holiday destination.

Stephen Pearce, who is Tourism Vancouver Vice-President, told Xinhua the tourism numbers are increasing year by year.

"We had a record year last year, in terms of record number of overnight visits. This year, we're going to be 9 million plus overnight visitors."

"And we're a lifestyle city. You don't experience Vancouver by staying in your hotel room. You get out and walk around, and you'll find that people here are doing all kinds of things from hiking to diving, to sailing, to exploring the beach in Stanley Park, and our restaurants and retail shops and so on. I suspect that everyone is here for different reasons."

Pearce said as tourism officials, they pay close attention to negative press about Vancouver, but he added that the column itself comes off as tongue-in-cheek and shouldn't be taken too seriously. Endi