What Are The Most Popular Cities in the World?

PHOTO: Bangkok held onto second place among 132 cities in Mastercard’s index despite all of its political turmoil. (Photo by James Ruggia)

London & Partners got out as early as a rooster to crow about the city’s top spot above 132 global cities in Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index 2014. The fourth such index also shows the strength of Asian cities as five of the top 10 are Far Eastern cities. In fairness, Southeast Asia is in a prime location as some of the world’s best source markets are located in the region, creating an intraregional travel pump that generates the sort of international arrivals that Mastercard measures.

Even taking that into account, you have to marvel at Bangkok (last year’s top city) holding second place despite all of the negative global media coverage that a full year of civil disobedience and a coup de’ tat generated. Bangkok lost 11 percent of its visitors in comparison to 2013. “Since 2009, we’ve seen cross-border travel and associated spending growing at faster rates than real world GDP,” said Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, global economic advisor to MasterCard.”

The index ranks cities by 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. According to Mastercard it uses algorithms to eliminate the hub effects for destination cities such as Singapore, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

Having economically strong source markets across nearby borders helps. Some 67 percent of London’s international visitors were short-haul European travelers. Paris and Istanbul also made the top 10 in international overnight visitors. Barcelona and Amsterdam also ranked highly on the list for Europe. The absence of a strong short-haul market makes Dubai’s place in the top 10 global list all the more impressive, especially when you factor in the $11 billion in visitor spending. New York showed its consistency by once again being the only North American city in the top 10 despite being distant from all international source markets.

Punta Cana replaced Santiago as a top 10 entry in Latin America. Among Latin American cities, Punta Cana ranked fourth displacing Caracas. Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, all mainstays on the rankings, round out the regional top five.

With its tangle of nearby borders Southeast Asia should continue to do well in this annual ranking. According to Mastercard, “Jakarta (is) projected to see growth of 18.8 percent, followed by Hanoi (15.1 percent) and Manila (14.3 percent).” Kuala Lumpur made the Asia Pacific’s top 10 for international visitors by sheer arrival numbers. At $14.3 billion, Singapore took over Bangkok’s top spot for international visitor spend in Asia Pacific, up 7.6 percent from last year. The city-state’s projected visitor arrivals expenditure per city resident stood at $2,600, beating out London’s $2,378 and second only to Dubai.