Photo of Dubai by Hans-Jürgen Schmidt from Pixabay
The GDCI
Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index, an index which ranks 200 cities in terms of overnight visitors and travel spend, is released on 4 Sep. The index is computed based on 10 years' worth of insights.
The Top Twenty
Dubai tops the list for highest traveler spending with travelers spending USD $553 on average a day, followed by Makkah and finally, Bangkok.
Regions with highest visitor spending
Asia has emerged as the most visited region. Cities in Asia-Pacific have seen the largest increase in international travelers since 2009, growing 9.4 percent. Seven of the top 20 cities with the highest visitor spending are from Asia, with a combined spending of US$81 billion. Europe, which saw the second highest growth, was up 5.5 percent. Europe also has 7 of the top 20 cities, with a combined visitor spending of close to US70 billion.
Top 20 Cities in Visitor Spending and Their Ranks (By Region)
Who's spending?
The past decade has seen the growth of international travellers from mainland China. Mainland Chinese travelers make up 8.9% of the travelers to these cities and contributed to 9.4% of the visitor spending in these cities. United States travelers make up 10% of the travelers to these destination and contributed to 9.3% of the visitor spending. Visitors from the United Kingdom contributed to 6.5% of the overall visitor spending.
Return » Part 1: Bangkok attracts the most travelers for four consecutive years .
