New research has shown that Bangkok has passed London and is now the 2nd most visited city in the world by international travellers. A report by Euromonitor International found that Asian cities dominated the top 10 with the Thai capital along with Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau and Kuala Lumpur all making the list.
The popularity of Asia was found throughout the “Top 100 City Destinations Ranking 2017″ by Euromonitor International as 41 Asian cities made the global destination rankings. The company is predicting this figure to reach 47 cities by 2025 as the demand from Chinese outbound tourism continues to grow on a yearly basis.
The increase in Chinese visitors was one of the reasons Bangkok saw even more arrivals. Many tour packages targeting first-time travellers from China were sold allowing the city to overtake London as the 2nd most visited city. All in all, arrivals in 2017 are expected to be 9.5% higher at 21.3 million. London had a total of 19.8 million arrivals while Singapore, with 16.6 travellers, finished in 4th place on the list.
Hong Kong was once again the most visited city in the world, according to the report. This is the 8th consecutive year the city has held the honour. An estimated 25.7 million people will make their way to Hong Kong this year, but this total is actually down 3.2% compared to last year. The drop in visitors is attributed to tensions with China as the government there has sought to exercise more control on the territory.
“Asia-Pacific is the standout region driving change in travel. We expect the region to continue growing in the coming decade with Singapore overtaking London as the 3rd most visited city in the world by 2025, giving the podium fully to Asia,” says Wouter Geerts, Senior Travel Analyst at Euromonitor International.
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