Bangkok was the world's most visited tourist destination last year, according to the annual Mastercard Destination Cities Index. The Thai capital attracted 19.41 million visitors in 2016, ahead of London (19.06 million) and Paris (14.87 million). Even though Dubai ranked fourth for overnight visitors, the UAE's largest city posted the highest level of spending by far. In 2016, overnight visitors splurged a whopping $28.5 billion, a sum that's expected to increase by more than 10 percent this year. Since 2009, over half of the 132 cities featured in Mastercard's index reported an increase in spend by overnight visitors consistent with or greater than GDP growth.
Source: Forbes September 28, 2017 12:22 UTC