These are the top 10 most visited cities in the world
Hint: You might want to think about booking your flight to Asia now.
The Grand Palace in Bangkok. Picture: iStock
In addition to being the most popular destination in 2016, Bangkok is forecast to become the most visited city in the world by year’s end for international travel.
According the latest edition of the annual Mastercard Destination Cities Index, the Thai capital received 19.41 million international overnight visitors in 2016 – a figure that’s expected to grow another 4% this year to 20.19 million.
Rounding out the top three spots is London, which is forecast to receive 20.01 million international overnight visitors by the end of 2017, and Paris, which trails at an estimated 16.13 million.
Globally, international overnight visitor arrivals across all 132 destinations studied have grown by 55% since 2009, points out the report.
But the biggest movers and shakers around the world lie mostly in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, which has seen a 15-24% growth in international visits over the last seven years.
That figure is expected to grow another 10% this year to $31.4-billion.
Dubai enjoys a big lead over its next competitor, New York, where international tourists spent $17.02-billion, a figure that’s expected to rise a modest 1.5% this year.
One of the biggest losers this year is London, where the fallout from Brexit is expected to result in negative growth (-5%) in tourist spending.
The index also revealed spending trends in some of the top 20 destination cities. For example, visitors to Seoul spend the most on shopping (57%), followed by London (47%), Osaka (43%) and Tokyo (43%).
Visitors to Istanbul and Prague can expect to shell out the most on food and dining (34% and 29% respectively), while accommodation eats up most of a traveler’s budget to cities like Paris (45%), Milan and Rome (both 40%).
Here are the top 10 cities in the Mastercard Destination Cities Index:
1. Bangkok, Thailand – 19.41 million visitors in 2016 (20.19 million forecast for 2017)
2. London, England – 19.06 million visitors in 2016 (20.01 million forecast for 2017)
3. Paris, France – 15.45 million visitors in 2016 (16.13 million forecast for 2017)
4. Dubai, UAE – 14.87 million visitors in 2016 (16.01 million forecast for 2017)
5. Singapore – 13.11 million visitors in 2016 (13.45 million forecast for 2017)
6. New York, USA – 12.70 million visitors in 2016 (12.36 million forecast for 2017)
7. Seoul, South Korea – 12.39 million visitors in 2016 (12.44 million forecast for 2017)
8. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 11.28 million visitors in 2016 (12.08 million forecast for 2017)
9. Tokyo, Japan – 11.15 million visitors in 2016 (12.51 million forecast for 2017)
10. Istanbul, Turkey – 9.16 million visitors in 2016 (9.24 million forecast for 2017)
