Most visited cities in the world in 2018
Mastercard has released its annual Global Destination Cities Index for 2018, which analyzes the rise and fall of travel to and within 162 cities from around the world.
The ranking measures visitor numbers and spend to forecast the growth in visits to those cities in 2018.
This year Bangkok retained the top spot from last year as the most visited city, which is unlikely to change due to a strong projected growth of 9.6% this year.
Meanwhile, Dubai took the lead in terms of visitor spending — the average visitor spends $537 a day in the Middle Eastern city.
Scroll down to see the 20 most visited cities in 2018,, ranked in ascending order by the projected number of international visitors in 2018.
20. Bali, Indonesia — 8.43 million international visitors.
19. Osaka, Japan — 8.78 million international visitors.
18. Barcelona, Spain — 9.06 million international visitors.
17. Hong Kong — 9.11 million international visitors.
16. Milan, Italy — 9.19 million international visitors.
15. Palma de Mallorca, Spain — 9.3 million international visitors.
14. Pattaya, Thailand — 9.56 million international visitors.
13. Makkah, Saudi Arabia — 9.73 million international visitors.
12. Phuket, Thailand — 10.08 million international visitors.
11. Seoul, South Korea — 10.13 million international visitors.
10. Antalya, Turkey — 11.27 million international visitors.
9. Tokyo, Japan — 12.12 million international visitors.
8. Istanbul, Turkey — 12.8 million international visitors.
7. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — 13.53 million international visitors.
6. New York City, USA — 13.67 million international visitors.
5. Singapore — 14.47 million international visitors.
4. Dubai, UAE — 16.66 million international visitors.
3. Paris, France — 17.95 million international visitors.
2. London, UK — 20.42 million international visitors.
1. Bangkok, Thailand — 21.98 million international visitors.
