Israel's LGBT community has a reason to be proud: It has officially been proclaimed the best gay travel destination of 2011.

In a world-wide survey conducted by GayCities.com and American Airlines, 43 percent of voters cast their ballot in favor of the White City, followed by New York City with 14 per cent, Toronto with 7 per cent, Sao Paulo with 6 per cent, Madrid and London with 5 per

cent each and New Orleans and Mexico City with 4 per cent each.

The crowning title of Best City was just one of the categories included in the competition of gay travel destinations. New York scored top votes for Best Night Life, San Francisco took Best Pride, Paris won Best Food and Seattle got Best Settle Down City. The smaller city of Buffalo took in quite a few votes itself, and was declared Best Up and Coming City.

Tel Aviv has always been known as a gay-friendly place, but it upped its presence around the world this year with a number of different activities, including its Tel Aviv Gay Vibe campaign, organized in coordination with the municipality's Ministry of Tourism.

About 5,000 gay tourists were recorded as visiting Tel Aviv last June for the annual Gay Pride Parade – 25 percent more than in 2010. Now that it's been voted best city, Tel Aviv can probably expect even more foreign visitors this June.

Read this article in Hebrew.