Known for beautiful temples, street food markets and wild nightlife, Bangkok has attracted the world’s most international visitors for the fourth year in a row as determined by the Mastercard Global Destination Index.
The index released its ranking of the world’s 200 most visited cities for 2019. The ranking is based on how many international overnight visitors the city is expected to receive.
The Thai capital will attract 22.78 million estimated total visitors for the year, which according to Business Insider, is the number based on 2019’s actual monthly data and the weighted average of national-level tourism forecasts.
The Top 200 most visited cities of 2019. Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index.Bangkok’s prominence is part of an overall rise in international visitors to Asia-Pacific countries. The number of travellers to the region has grown by 9.4% since 2009. This is related to steady growth throughout the decade in international travel.
“Each year, more people are travelling internationally and spending more in the cities. Between all of the destinations within the Index, arrivals have grown on average 6.5% year-over-year since 2009, with expenditure growing on average 7.4%,” states Diana Munoz Robino, Senior Vice President of Global Tourism Partnerships, whom Mastercard referenced in the report.
Despite being the most visited city, Bangkok only ranks third in overnight visitor spending. Dubai, the fourth most visited city, unsurprisingly takes first place with a total spend of $30.82 billion.
Image source: Pixabay
