The Little Red Dot has broken into the top five of the list of destination cities in the world, according to the latest Mastercard Destination Cities Index.
Out of 132 top destination cities, Singapore has emerged as the 5th most visited hotspot on Mastercard’s annual listing, chalking up 13.11 million visitors in total. This puts Singapore above New York, which dropped one spot to sixth, with 12.7 million visitors.
Bangkok reigns in the top spot once again, for two years in a row now, dethroning London of its prior glory. The English capital now sits at number two, while Paris takes third place and Dubai fourth.
In terms of visitor spending, however, it’s Dubai at the top, with US$28.50 billion spent across 2016. In comparison, Singapore’s visitors spent US$15.69 billion in total. Mastercard highlighted that with efficient transport systems in place, less budget is spent on commuting in places like Singapore, London, and Hong Kong.
But despite touting itself as a retail destination, Singapore pales in comparison to cities like Seoul, London, Osaka, and Tokyo, where a major chunk of visitor expenditure is spent on shopping.
Another highlight (that us Singaporeans have already known about for quite some time) is the fact that most visitors here come from China. A total of 2.3 million Chinese nationals visited Singapore last year, all of whom spent an estimated US$3.52 billion. Since last year, China has turned out to be Singapore’s top-spending market, taking over Indonesia.
