Research on urban tourism promotion has recently gained a considerable importance. Urban tourism promotion plays a crucial role in raising the tourism profile of the city. Given the difference of cities, it is astonishing to discover that cities’ tourism promotion materials repetitively use similar slogans, phrases and expressions. This study evaluates tourism promotion of two different cities, Helsinki and Istanbul, which rely on three common selling points: ‘the city between the East and West’, ‘the city of tolerance’ and ‘city size’. The study examines tourism materials by using content analysis in order to identify how these categories are used and how they represent Helsinki and Istanbul.