BERLIN, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Visitors to German cities find German cities only moderately attractive, according to a survey by the Cologne institute for retail research (IFH) that was published on Wednesday.

Evaluating many factors such as ambiance, retail offers, parking, gastronomy and other services, more than 50,000 visitors in 116 German cities were surveyed.

With a satisfactory average, a "school grade of C", German inner cities "cannot and should not be satisfied," IFH director Boris Hedde commented.

Since the first IFH survey in 2014, hardly anything has changed in the assessment of German cities by visitors. However, cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants performed best and improved the most on average.

The city of Leipzig was the winner among the large cities in the IFH consumer ranking.

Retailers in German cities are struggling with problems such as the boom in online commerce. According to IFH, around one in five visitors surveyed said they are now less likely to go to the city as they are increasingly shopping online.