Bangkok remains world’s fave destination for 4th year

Bangkok was named the world’s most visited city yesterday for the fourth year in a row. Image: Coconuts

By Coconuts Bangkok

Sep 5, 2019 | 11:41am Bangkok time

Having welcomed nearly 23 million international visitors during the past year, Bangkok was named the world’s most visited city yesterday for the fourth year in a row.

Although Thailand’s capital has topped a number of unpleasant lists such as world’s most polluted; that hasn’t stopped travelers from making it the city most traveled, despite a slump in visitors from China, one of the kingdom’s biggest sources of arrivals, according to an annual index published by MasterCard.

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The latest Global Destination Cities Index ranked Bangkok at No. 1, followed by Paris (19.1 million), London (19.1 million) and Dubai (15.9 million). Bangkok has dominated the list for a decade, appearing in the top three spots since 2010.

The capital is not the only Thai city on the list, however. Phuket, with nearly 10 million visitors, came in at 14th place, immediately followed by Pattaya with about 9.5 million visitors.

The index estimates that the average length of stay in Bangkok is 4.8 days with US$184 (THB5,600) being the average amount spent daily by international tourists.

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This is MasterCard’s 10th year producing the list. It noted that The report international travel has increased 76% in that time to the 200 destinations it tracks.

This year’s edition is based on data from 2018. The index ranks cities based on a proprietary analysis of the total number of international overnight visitor arrivals and their spending. The information gathered is from third-party sources including the World Travel & Tourism Council and International Air Transport Association.