The ranking mirrors the decline of European tourist destinations in terms of international arrivals, due to the debt crisis, which affected tourism in the euro currency zone, as well as the progress registered by tourist destinations in the Asia-Pacific region.
Bucharest outranked Athens (ranked 77 with 1.7 million visitors in 2010, down 7%), Munich, Mexico City, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Milan, Lisbon, Sao Paulo, Venice, Florence or Washington DC.
Prague and Moscow were the most visited cities in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe with 3.7 million visitors each. They were followed by Vienna (3.5 million visitors), Kiev (3.3 million), Budapest (2.6 million), St Petersburg (2.5 million) and Warsaw (2.4 million).
The number of visitors to Brussels was 2.2 million in 2010.
The most visited city in the world in 2010 was Hong Kong, with about 20 million foreign visitors. The Asian city-state was followed by Singapore (18.2 million visitors) and London (14.5 million). Macau attracted over 13 million visitors, up 25.9% compared with 2009 and is ranked fourth in the world.
The most visited American city was New York. It was ranked eighth in the world with 8.9 million visitors in 2010.
Paris was ranked ninth with 8.1 million foreign tourists and Rome 14th with 5.6 million visitors. Barcelona and Las Vegas came in the 16th and 17th positions, respectively, with 5.1 million visitors each.