International Overnight Visitors in Singapore Forecasted to Increase by 2.6% - Mastercard Global Destinations Cities Index 2017

According to the latest Mastercard Global Destinations Cities Index 2017 released today, travel and tourism in Asia-Pacific are both expected to grow steadily in the period ahead. Bringing in $91.16 billion USD in travel expenditure in 2016, Asia Pacific outpaced Europe ($74.74 billion USD), and North America ($55.02 billion USD). 

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International overnight visitors to the Top 10 destination cities were up in 2016. According to the Index, Bangkok tracked 19.41 million visitors, while London came in a close second with 19.06 million visitors. Singapore (13.11 million visitors) inched past New York (12.7 million visitors) into fifth position for the first time in three years, while Seoul (12.39 million visitors) leapfrogged three spots into seventh place.

Home to half of the world’s top ten most visited cities, Asia Pacific’s success as a global travel hub has been supported by strong intra-regional travel. Both Singapore and Seoul tracked significant growths, aided by visitors from neighboring countries, particularly those from China. In the Index’s seven-year history, China has grown from being passive contributors to the region’s travel sector to the main driver of growth for visitor arrivals into Asia Pacific’s top destinations. Overall, forecasts for continued growth in 2017 are positive except for New York, with Tokyo (12.2%) expecting the largest boom.