The British capital loses its first place to the Asian megacity. Paris maintains its third position in the ranking conducted annually by Mastercard.
Bad news for London, which for years held the top spot in the annual ranking of the world’s most visited cities for both tourism and business, published this Thursday by Mastercard.
According to this ranking, which is based not on actual numbers but on an estimate of the number of international visitors expected in 2016, it is indeed Bangkok that is expected to take the top spot on the podium.
Thus, even though Thailand was affected by attacks this summer, the Asian megacity is expected to welcome 21.47 million worldwide visitors this year, according to this ranking. This is more than in 2015 (18.24 million) and especially more than the British capital, which seemed unassailable: London is expected to welcome 19.88 million visitors, which is still a bit more than last year (18.8 million).
Paris, on the other hand, remains in third place on the world podium and second in Europe, with 18.03 million visitors expected, a figure that, despite the attacks, shows progress compared to the 16 million estimated in the 2015 ranking.
In the rest of the Top 10, we find Dubai maintaining its fourth position (with 15.27 million visitors), ahead of New York (12.75 million), Singapore (12.11), Kuala Lumpur (12.02), Istanbul (11.95), Tokyo (11.7), and Seoul (10.2).
A little innovation in the 2016 ranking, Mastercard now claims to be able to distinguish not only between leisure and business trips but also to differentiate the various spending categories of visitors.
Overall, tourism remains the main reason for visits (representing 85.6% of the total in Bangkok, 79.1% in London, and 70.3% in Paris), except in Shanghai, where business trips account for more than 54% of the total.
These figures also reveal that accommodation and food are the most significant spending categories and are higher in Paris (where they represent 44.8% and 23.6% of stay expenses, respectively) than in London (30.1% and 16.5%).
They also drive the point home for France by clearly showing that London far surpasses Paris as a shopping destination: it accounts for 16.5% of spending in the French capital, well below the 46.7% observed across the Channel.
