Times Square Among Most Popular Sites For Holiday Engagements

NEW YORK CITY — Three New York City landmarks are among the world’s Top 10 Instagrammable places for couples to engaged over the holidays. But while popular, the three sites won’t likely score the one popping the big question points for originality.

H&T, a social media company based in the United Kingdom, analyzed hashtags to score the sites of romantic engagements and found that Times Square was the third most-popular place in the world for couples to get engaged with 4.5 million Instagram posts, according to a recent study.

Times Square ranked behind Santorini, Greece (7 million) and the Eifel Tower in Paris (6.5 million) while the Empire State Building (2.9 million) and Bryant Park (662,000) ranked fifth and eighth, respectively, on the top places for holiday engagements captured on the popular social media platform.

Only five U.S. destinations ranked in the Top 14 spots on the list with Red Rock Canyon in Nevada and the fountain at the Bellagio in Las Vegas rounding out the Top 10.

Like with many other aspects of life, engagements have experienced an uptick from 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic was just picking up steam. According to H&T, searches for engagement rings for women have increased by 250 percent while Internet searches for how much should be spent on an engagement ring have jumped by 350 percent.

With engagements regaining popularity, New York City wasn’t alone in the predictability of some of the scenes of the big question. The London Eye ranked 4th on the list and Cinque Terre in Italy and The Shard in London also cracked the Top 10 while Disney World in Florida was the only remaining U.S. site on the list after the Top 10, ranking 15th — just 67,000 Instagram posts behind St. Michael’s Fountain in the United Kingdom.