Top 20 travel destination cities in the world of 2012

After the UNWTO Tourism Highlight report 2012, another world travel statistic report was released recently, namely the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index. Spearheaded by MasterCard, this destination cities index listed out the top travel destination cities, as opposed to countries in UNWTO’s report, after collecting data on visitor traffic and cross-border travel spend in 132 cities around the globe. If you haven’t got a clue to which city you are planning for your next holidays, check out this list of popular cities where most travelers around the world are falling for.

Here is the list of Global Top 20 Destination Cities in terms of International Visitors received in year 2011:

1. London (16.9 Million);
2. Paris (16 Million);
3. Bangkok (12.2 Million);
4. Singapore (11.8 Million);
5. Istanbul (11.6 Million);
6. Hong Kong (11.1 Million);
7. Madrid (9.7 Million);
8. Dubai (8.8 Million);
9. Frankfurt (8.1 Million);
10. Kuala Lumpur (8.1 Million);
11. Seoul (8.0 Million);
12. Rome (7.8 Million);
13. New York (7.6 Million);
14. Shanghai (7.5 Million);
15. Barcelona (7.3 Million);
16. Milan (7.1 Million);
17. Amsterdam (6.9 Million);
18. Vienna (6.7 Million);
19. Beijing (6.2 Million), and
20. Taipei (5.4 Million)

According to the Index and despite a challenging economic environment, the overall travel and tourism picture is predicted to be fairly strong for 2012, with international visitor numbers projected to increase by a healthy 5.7% and associated spend to swell by 10.6% for the top 20 ranked cities in the report.

London has again secured global dominance. It has been crowned number one – the world’s top destination city – for the second year running. It is predicted to grow both in terms of international visitor numbers and expenditure.

Although the report predicts that Paris will have fewer international visitors this year – a marginal decline of 0.6% – it will still hold the number two slot in terms of actual numbers of visitors. What’s more, those visiting are set to spend slightly more – their spend will increase by 1.5%.

Despite Western Europe’s economic woes, major cities including Dublin, Brussels, Lisbon, Barcelona, Vienna and Frankfurt are expected to increase their international visitor spend during 2012.

The Asia/Pacific regional story stands out as the real success story of the report, with total visitor numbers for the top ten cities predicted to grow by 9.5 % and total international spending set to increase by a solid 15.3%. Average international spending per visit for these cities is set to increase to $1,350, up 5.4% on the previous year. Bangkokclaims the top slot in terms of visitor spend in the report and Tokyo, in sixth place, shows the fastest predicted spend growth, at 24.2%. Hot on its heels is Taipei, with a healthy predicted visitor spend growth of 20.5%.

Among the top 20 cities, I was lucky to have visited 10 of them. I visited Shanghai in 2008, London, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam and Singapore in 2010, Barcelona, Hong Kong and Beijing in 2011, and I’m now staying in Kuala Lumpur. Check out my travel stories in each of these city on my Travel Feeder blog. In my opinion, they truly deserve to be on top as a travel destination city. However, in next year report, I would expect Tokyo to be ranked as one of the top 20! 🙂 – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.