Mastercard survey predicts blue skies for Bangkok
Asia Pacific stands out as the success story of the latest MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index that analyses both visitor traffic and cross-border travel spend in 132 cities around the globe.
The report, which ranks the world’s leading destination cities and demonstrates the interconnectivity among those cities, predicts total visitor numbers for the top 10 cities in Asia Pacific will grow by 9.5 % and total international spending will increase by 15.3%.
Bangkok claims top slot in terms of visitor spend and Tokyo, in sixth place, shows the fastest predicted spend growth, at 24.2%.
Bangkok will see growth of 6.5% in terms of visitors and 16.6% in international spend. Traffic to Bangkok will be concentrated within the region.
London is the world’s top destination city for the second year running. It is predicted to grow both in terms of international visitor numbers and expenditure, fuelled by a summer of celebration in the UK capital.
According to the Index and despite a challenging economic environment, the overall travel and tourism picture is predicted to be fairly strong for 2012, with international visitor numbers projected to increase by 5.7% and associated spend to swell by 10.6% for the top 20 ranked cities in the report (compared to 2011).
Ian Jarrett
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