Poll finds Bangkok most-visited city
Bangkok has beat out London to become the world’s most-visited city this year, owing to cheaper living costs and full facilities for travel and entertainment, according to the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index 2016.
Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, chief economist at the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, said value for money has drawn tourists to Bangkok for years. He also cited the city’s one-of-a-kind street food and lively nightlife.
“Bangkok is very attractive for every class of international visitor, from businessmen from high-income countries to backpackers coming for leisure,” he said.
Its pole position is because of Thailand’s strong infrastructure, another factor that helps attract international visitors.
This year, the Thai capital is estimated to welcome 21.5 million international tourists and generate around 514 billion baht in revenue. Second-ranked London will draw 9.88 million tourists, generating about 688 billion baht.
Tourism has been one of the rare bright spots for Thailand, Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, which has grappled with weak consumer spending and falling exports for several years.
Mr Hedrick-Wong said Bangkok should prepare for rising demand from international tourists by improving its travel themes such has medical tourism, entertainment tourism or any form of innovative travel theme to maintain its ranking as the most-visited city in the world.
“Bangkok should keep developing as fast as the increasing number of visitors,” he said.
The chief economist believes Bangkok will maintain its rank of most-visited destination next year as the city has proved resilient to many crises, from political unrest to natural disasters and can recover in a short period.
“These problems only have a short-term impact on tourism, as the past couple of years have shown,” said Mr Hedrick-Wong.
Thailand could maintain its unique appeal of its tourist attractions in Bangkok and major provinces with support from government investment in infrastructure projects.
The MasterCard Global Destinations Cities Index 2016 surveyed 132 cities worldwide based on many factors such as crossborder spending and internal patterns.
The report said Bangkok was the mostvisited city, followed by London, Paris, Dubai, New York, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Istanbul and Tokyo.
In the 2015 survey, London topped the list and Bangkok came in second.
Chinese tourists account for the largest number of arrivals in Bangkok, followed by those from Japan, the US, India and Germany, said the MasterCard survey.
The country is expected to welcome over 30 million visitors this year, the majority from China, said the Tourism Authority of Thailand.