London has been ranked the "destination of choice for international travellers" for the third time in four years.
The annual Mastercard Global Destination Index (GDCI) based its findings on visitor spending, tourism growth and flight traffic from "feeder" cities.
The UK capital is projected to receive 18.7 million visitors (all of whom stay at least one night) by the end of the year, an increase of 8 per cent on the year before.
Out of the 132 cities surveyed, last year's winner, Bangkok, came in second with an anticipated 16.4 million visitors, Paris third with 15.6 million, Singapore fourth with 12.5 million and Dubai fifth with 12 million.
Top ten cities in terms of international overnight visitors:
- London
- Bangkok
- Paris
- Singapore
- Dubai
- New York
- Istanbul
- Kuala Lumpur
- Hong Kong
- Seoul
London was also ranked top for visitor spending, with an estimated annual growth for 2014 of 13.4 per cent – the equivalent of US$19.3 billion. New York took second place with an expected US$18.6 billion, Paris third with US$17 billion, Singapore fourth with US$14.3 billion and Bangkok fifth with US$13 billion.
Marion King, UK president of Mastercard, said: "This is the first time an Olympic city hasn't suffered 'the curse', the post-Olympic slump where the big event has happened and we all move on."
Kit Malthouse, deputy mayor of London for business and enterprise, said: "In many ways [the ranking] is a kind of a bit frightening for us because there is only one way to go unless you work pretty hard."
Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, Mastercard’s chief economist and global advisor, agreed.
He said: "The game is not over – this is no time for complacency. Bangkok, and Thailand in general, has survived all sorts of disasters. Remember the tsunami of 2004? Many people thought it was time to write off Thailand as a destination and yet tourism came back very quickly."
London's top five feeder cities for flights are New York, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Stockholm and Dublin, respectively, with 67 per cent of total visitors coming from Europe.
Hedrick-Wong said: "To a very large extent, the success or failure of destination cities comes down to how many cities a city is attracting people from. London has a very unique characteristic in that if you add up how many feeder cities account for the first 50 per cent of visitors, in the case of London it is over 30.
"Number two is Bangkok but it only takes about 18 feeder cities to account for the first 50 per cent of its visitors, while other destination cities drop down to ten or eight or seven.
"London has a very diversified network of feeder cities, which is important as, on any given day, some part of the global economy may be booming, or slowing down or even contracting. A very diversified network means the city has built-in resilience and ability to continue to drive cross-border spending."
mastercard.com, londonandpartners.com
Jenny Southan
