global top destinations

Mastercard, released the Global Top 10 Destinations cities which define that tourism is driving the economic engines of growth and development around the world. Since 2009, international travel and spending by overnight visitors to cities have grown faster than real GDP (Gross domestic product). To help cities understand key drivers and unlock the value of tourism, Mastercard released its annual Mastercard Destination Cities Index with Bangkok the top one with 19.41 million visitors. 2016 International Overnight Visitors Bangkok - 19.41 million visitors London - 19.06 million visitors Paris - 15.45 million visitors Dubai - 14.87 million visitors Singapore - 13.11 million visitors New York - 12.70 million visitors Seoul - 12.39 million visitors Kuala Lumpur - 11.28 million visitors Tokyo - 11.15 million visitors Istanbul - 9.16 million visitors   About the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index The Mastercard Index of Global Destination Cities ranks cities in terms of the number of their total international overnight visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors in the destination cities in 2016, and gives visitor and passenger growth forecasts for 2017. Public data is used in deriving the international overnight visitor arrivals and their cross-border spending in each of the 132 destination cities. This Index and the accompanying reports are not based on Mastercard volumes or transactional data.