In case you are looking to travel but are not sure which city is the right one for you, there is a chance that MasterCard’s Global Destination Cities Index might help you. This particular index factors in airline ticket purchases, purchases of souvenirs as well as additional spending data and calculates which world cities enjoy most popularity with travelers and tourists.
London comes in at No. 1, despite pound being quite strong still and despite the city being one of the more expensive to visit. In 2014, almost 19 million people visited England’s capital, which is two million more than No. 2 on the list…
…which happens to be Bangkok, Thailand. In 2013, it topped the list, but in 2014, London surpassed it. In 2014, more than 16 million tourists visited the city, mostly attracted by promises of great fun for a low cost.
Despite its reputation as the world’s tourist capital, Paris actually comes in third, with around 15.5 million visitors in 2015. France’s capital, unlike London, boasts a huge percentage of visitors from outside EU, most notably Japan and United States.
Singapore is the most popular Asian tourist destination, mostly thanks to its cultural offering and beautiful outdoor spaces. In addition to this, Singapore is somewhat of a hub in this part of the world, a popular layover destination from which tourists go further across this part of Asia. Dubai is the fifth most popular tourist destination, with a distinction of having almost 5 times as many tourists as actual residents at any given moment.
New York is, expectedly, the highest ranked American city at No. 6. It boasted almost 12 million tourist visits in 2014. Los Angeles, Toronto, Miami and San Francisco are the other four cities in North American Top 5.
