Bangkok is the top-ranked destination city by international overnight visitor arrivals, according to the annual Mastercard Global Destinations Cities Index.
Ranking 132 cities, the index projects visitor volume and spend estimates while delivering insights into how people travel and spend around the world.
As cross-border travel and spending continue to grow at a faster pace than the world GDP, the world’s cities continue to be engines of broader economic growth, says Mastercard.
According to the study, Bangkok is projected to receive 21.47 million international overnight visitors this year, just ahead of London (19.88 million visitors).
Also in the top 10 cities are:
• Kuala Lumpur, 12.02 million visitors
• Paris, 18.03 million visitors
• Istanbul, 11.95 million visitors
• Dubai, 15.27 million visitors
• Tokyo, 11.70 million visitors
• New York, 12.75 million visitors
• Seoul, 10.20 million visitors
• Singapore, 12.11 million visitors
Hong Kong was 11th.
“The way people travel and spend across borders indicates just how interconnected and important the world’s cities are,” says Mastercard president of international markets Ann Cairns.
As well as the top 10 cities, Mastercard names the top 10 fastest-growing destinations, which indicates the increasingly importance of Asia Pacific to the global economic landscape.
Osaka new star
Osaka has shown the strongest growth in international visitors (24.15 per cent) over the past seven years. Other cities that make the fastest-growing list:
• Chengdu, 20.14 per cent
• Taipei, 14.53 per cent
• Abu Dhabi, 19.81 per cent
• Xi’an, 14.2 per cent
• Colombo, 19.57 per cent
• Tehran, 12.98 per cent
• Tokyo, 18.48 per cent
• Xiamen, 12.93 per cent
• Riyadh, 16.45 per cent
For the first time, the index explores whether visitors travel for business or leisure, giving broader insights into spending on dining, lodging and shopping. The index shows that more people are travelling to the top 20 cities for leisure with Shanghai being the sole exception.
Visitors to the top 20 cities overwhelmingly spent more on shopping, as opposed to dining, says the index.
Asia Pacific dominates both the global top 10 (five cities) and top 10 fastest-growing destination cities (seven cities).
Public data is used in deriving the international overnight visitor arrivals and their cross-border spending in each of the 132 destination cities for the index. Mastercard volumes or transactional data is not considered.
The full report can be downloaded here.
