Bangkok is poised to become the world’s most popular city this year for international travellers for the second year in a row, according to the report of financial services corporation Mastercard.

In its Mastercard’s 2017 Global Destination Cities Index released last week, it said Bangkok is set to welcome nearly 20.2 million International overnight visitors this year, or 4% increase from last year.

London retained its No. 2 title for the second year running, with projected arrivals topping 20 million in 2017.

Paris is in third place with 16.1 million visitors forecast.

Dubai, coming in at No. 4, expects to see just over 16 million international visitors in 2017.

Singapore rounds out the Top 5 for arrivals, with nearly 13.5 million international visitors expected in 2017.

The Mastercard Index of Global Destination Cities ranks cities in terms of the number of their total international overnight visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors in the destination cities in 2016, and gives visitor and passenger growth forecasts for 2017.

Top 10 destination cities are:

1. Bangkok, Thailand — 19.41 million visitors in 2016 (20.19 million forecast for 2017)

2. London, England — 19.06 million visitors in 2016 (20.01 million forecast for 2017)

3. Paris, France — 15.45 million visitors in 2016 (16.13 million forecast for 2017)

4. Dubai, UAE — 14.87 million visitors in 2016 (16.01 million forecast for 2017)

5. Singapore — 13.11 million visitors in 2016 (13.45 million forecast for 2017)

6. New York, USA — 12.70 million visitors in 2016 (12.36 million forecast for 2017)

7. Seoul, South Korea — 12.39 million visitors in 2016 (12.44 million forecast for 2017)

8. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — 11.28 million visitors in 2016 (12.08 million forecast for 2017)

9. Tokyo, Japan — 11.15 million visitors in 2016 (12.51 million forecast for 2017)

10. Istanbul, Turkey — 9.16 million visitors in 2016 (9.24 million forecast for 2017)

source: Thailand Business News