Asian cities experience an increase in both visitors and spending according to the latest MasterCard Global Destinations Cities Index. It demonstrates that tourism in the region remains over all urban…
Top 10 destination cities in Asia Pacific are estimated to attract 77.6 million visitors via air travel in 2012, up 9.5 percent on year, while their cross-border spending will rise by 15.3 percent to US$ 104.7 billion, according to MasterCard Global Destinations Cities Index released last week.
Bangkok, ranks third globally, tops the Asia Pacific region’s cities by visitor arrivals with 12.2 million inbound passengers and 19.3 billion U.S. dollars are expected to be spent in 2012. Singapore came in fourth globally in term of visitor arrivals, with US$ 12.7 billion in cross-border spending. This represent an increase of 12.7 percent compared to last year.
The report also shows that Tokyo ranks second in the top 20 fastest growing destination cities in term of visitor number, partly due to its recovery from serious disasters. The cross- border expending in this city will be up 24.2 percent on year, which represents the third growth globally.
Meanwhile, Taipei enjoys a visitor number growth rate of 15.1 percent, ranking the seventh fastest growing destination all around the word, which is mainly driven by tourists arriving from Chinese mainland.
MasterCard said the global top 20 destination cities will see 184.9 million visitors or 5.7 percent more from last year. They are estimated to spend US$ 241 billion all together, up 10.6 percent on year.
The index is calculated from data and statistics of United Nations World Tourism Organisation, International Air Transport Association and International Monetary Fund. There are 132 cities involving in this ranking. MasterCard said the index and the accompany reports are not based on MaterCard volumes or transactional data.
Source: Xinhua
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
![[PR] PR_Ascott and Vimut Hospital_2024](https://www.traveldailynews.asia/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PR-PR_Ascott-and-Vimut-Hospital_2024-400x265.jpg)
