“Rounding out the top five cities are Bangkok, Paris, Singapore and Dubai, which are benefiting from a surge in international travel fueled by an expanding middle class, innovations in luxury travel and rising need for business travel. The index also indicates this surge will continue, even with more technology and collaboration tools available to businesses,” according to a MasterCard release.
Bucharest ranks 90th with a number of foreign visitors estimated at 928,028 persons in 2014, whose expenses would total $391 million.
According to the study, London is projected to receive 18.7 million international visitors in 2014, up by 300,000 compared with 2013’s favorite destination, Bangkok.
Bangkok is expecting 16.42 million visitors, Paris – 15.57 million, Singapore – 12.47 million, and Dubai – 11.95 million.
“The index points to a continued strong demand and interest in air travel, both for business and personal travel. The recognition of this year’s top international destinations reinforces the continued importance of cities as business, cultural and economic hubs,” said Ann Cairns, president of International Markets, MasterCard.
The MasterCard Index of Global Destination Cities ranks cities in terms of the number of their total international visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors in the destination cities, and gives visitor and passenger growth forecasts for 2014.
Public data are used in deriving the international visitor arrivals and their cross-border spending in each of the 132 destination cities.