London will lead the world in terms of international tourist arrivals this year, according to new research released June 1 by MasterCard.
The new index of Global Destination Cities predicts London will receive 20.1 million inbound passengers in 2011, slightly more than Paris’s 18.1 million.
Bangkok is expected to welcome the third-highest number of visitors, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong — in fact, cities in Asia-Pacific account for eight of the top 20 global destinations.
By contrast, MasterCard predicts that only one US city will be among the world’s most visited this year, with New York taking 12th place and predicted to welcome 7.6 million inbound passengers.
The Big Apple can perhaps take consolation that visitors will spend $20.3 billion there this year, more than every other city save London, which will see cross-border expenditures of $25.6 billion.
As well as studying total arrivals, MasterCard also looked at visitor growth, forecasting that the Spanish city of Barcelona will see the biggest jump — 24.3 percent growth in arrivals this year, followed by Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur at 21.8 percent and Istanbul at 20.4 percent.
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