Mumbai among top 10 tourist destinations in APAC

The country's commercial capital Mumbai is among the top ten destination cities in the Asia Pacific region in terms of attracting international visitors, says a MasterCard index.

Image: Mumbai stands at ninth position in the top 10 tourist destination list. Photograph: PTI

Bangkok is the top spot in Asia/Pacific's top 10 destinations in terms of international overnight visitors and cross-border spending, while Mumbai was ranked 9th.

Bangkok is the top tourist destination, says a survey. Photograph: Reuters

Thailand's capital Bangkok is followed by Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in the second and third place, respectively.

Image: Singapore's scenic beauty takes it to 2nd position in the top ten list of global tourist destinations. Photograph, courtesy: Nicolas Lannuzel/Wikimedia Commons

Others in the top 10 include Seoul at 4th place, Hong Kong (5th), Tokyo (6th), Taipei (7th), Shanghai (8th) and Osaka (10th).

Image: Kuala Lumpur is the 3rd best tourist destination, reveals a survey. Photograph: Courtesy, Sham Hardy/Wikimedia Creative Commons

Moreover, five Asian cities -- Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and Hong Kong –- made it to the overall Global Destination Cities' top ten list which was topped by London.

Image: Seoul attracts a lot of visitors throughout the year and is the 4th best tourist destination across the globe. Photograph: Reuters

"Asian cities dominate among the leading destinations in the world in attracting international visitors arriving by air," MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth Chief Economist Yuwa Hedrick-Wong said.

Image: Hong Kong is the 5th most visited tourist destination. Photograph: Reuters

London topped the overall list with 18.24 million international overnight visitors, followed by Bangkok at 18.24 million visitors and Paris at 16.06 million.

Image: Tokyo is also one of the hot tourist destinations; stands at 6th position in the best global destinations list. Photograph: Reuters

Others in the list include Dubai (14.26 million visitors), Istanbul (12.56 million), New York (12.27 million), Singapore (11.88 million), Kuala Lumpur (11.12 million).

Image: Taipei is one of the fasted growing economies and is the 7th most visited destination across the globe. Photograph: Reuters

Seoul (10.35 million) and Hong Kong (8.66 million). In addition, seven of the top ten fastest growing cities by visitor number over the last six years are in Asia.

Image: Shanghai follows Mumbai in the top ten list of global destinations which tourists like to visit most. Photograph: Reuters

Sri Lanka's capital city Colombo leads the pack, followed by Chengdu, the provincial capital of China's Sichuan province and Abu Dhabi at the third place.

Image: Osaka is the tenth most visited tourist destination across the world. Photograph: Reuters

"This reflects the growing appeal of Asia as it continues to develop, led by the fast emerging ASEAN economies, China and India," MasterCard Southeast Asia President Matthew Driver said.

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