Crowded much? 20 most visited cities in the world

The good folks at market intelligence firm Euromonitor International have compiled this list based on international visitors arriving at various cities in 2013.

(Note: Even though the figures are from the year 2013, they were released only recently.)

Let's get started, shall we?

20. Miami, US

With over 6.275 million international visitors arriving at Miami in 2013, the beach destination saw a 4.1 per cent increase from its 2012 figures.

Photograph: Marcos Vasconcelos/Creative Commons

19. Taipei, Taiwan

The capital city of Taiwan ranked number 19 with 6.692 million people paying it a visit in 2013.

Photograph: Nicky Loh/Reuters

18. Pattaya, Thailand

Almost seven million (6.986 to be precise) international visitors arrived in Pattaya.

Photograph: Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters 

17. Mecca, Saudi Arabia

The holiest site for Muslims around the world received 7.512 million visitors, a good 9.6 per cent increase since the preceding year.

Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

16. Guangzhou, China

The largest city of the Guangdong province in South China may have seen a three per cent drop in its visitors from 2012 and was down to 7.630 million but it stayed in the top 20.

Photograph: Tim Wang/Creative Commons

15. Phuket, Thailand

With 11.3 per cent more travellers visiting Phuket in 2013 than in the previous year, the capital of the eponymous province came at number 15.

8.035 million travellers visited Phuket in Thailand.

Photograph: Abdulrahman AlZe3bi/Creative Commons

14. Rome, Italy

The capital city of Italy saw just a 2.2 per cent increase in international visitors since 2012.

With 8.608 million visitors landing in Rome in 2013, the city ranked number 14 in the most visited in the world.

Photograph: Tony Gentile/Reuters

13. Seoul, South Korea

The South Korean capital received 8.619 million visitors in 2013, a 3.1 per cent increase from its 2012 numbers and ranked 13.

Photograph: Lee Jae-Won/Reuters

12. Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Ranking number 12, the glitzy city of the United Arab Emirates got an estimated 10.458m visitors.

Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff.com

11. Istanbul, Turkey

One of the most popular destinations amongst young Indians, Istanbul received 10.486 million visitors in 2013, up 11.8 per cent from 2012.

Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters

10. Antalya, Turkey

Turkey, yet another favourite international destination rounded off the top ten with 11.121 million visitors.

Photograph: OzgUr Mulazimoglu/Creative Commons

9. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Some 11.182 million travellers visited the home of the Petronas Towers taking Kuala Lumpur to number nine in the list.

Photograph: Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters

8. Shenzhen, China

The other Chinese city besides Guangzhou also saw a three per cent drop from the 2012 figures. With 11.703 million visitors, Shenzhen came at number 8.

Photograph: Bobby Yip/Reuters

7. New York City, US

America's financial capital, received 11.850 million international travellers and ranked number seven.

Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

6. Macau, Macau

While Macau scored over NYC with 14.269m visitors and came at number six.

Photograph: Dennis Wong/Creative Commons

5. Paris, France

The French capital received 15.2 million visitors and rounded off the top five.

Photograph: Trey Ratcliff/Creative Commons

4. London, UK

The Brits were evidently thrilled to see London rank o-n-e spot over Paris with 16.784 million visitors.

And they should be considering it was an 8.6 per cent increase in the number of visitors in 2012… the year of the Olympics.

Photograph: Nick Kenrick/Creative Commons

3. Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok received 17.468 million visitors and came third, a whopping 10.4 per cent increase on its 2012 figures. Take that London, Paris, New York! :-)

Photograph: Mike Behnken/Creative Commons

2. Singapore, Singapore

And with 22.455 million visitors, Singapore left Bangkok far behind finishing at the second spot.

Photograph: Uwe Schwarzbach/Creative Commons

1. Hong Kong, Hong Kong

We wind up with Hong Kong that topped the list with 25.587 million visitors arriving at its shores, a 7.6 per cent increase from its 2012 numbers.

Photograph: Jens Schott Knudsen/Creative Commons