by s.s. yoga
As in the year before, Hong Kong in 2012 hosted the most foreign visitors. – AFP
Have a look at the top 25 cities that received the most foreign visitors in 2012.
EVERYONE and their grandparents seemed to have headed to Asia in
2012. And Kuala Lumpur snagged a spot in the top 10 most visited cities
by foreigners in that year – coming in at sixth.
The number of international tourist arrivals in 2012 was tracked
by London-based market research firm Euromonitor, which released the
report recently. According to AFP, Hong Kong maintained its top ranking
with 23,770,200 foreigners visiting its shores in that year.
In fact, Asian cities tightened their stranglehold on the market,
taking six of the top seven positions; the monopoly was broken only by
London at fourth.
In addition, more than half of the top 25 cities that received the
most foreign visitors were in Asia. China assumed four spots – two more
if you include the SAR regions of Hong Kong (No. 1) and Macau (No. 5).
Thailand has three with Bangkok at No. 3, tying overall with the United
States but New York came in only at eighth.
AFP reported analysts as attributing Bangkok's high position to the wild popularity of the 2012 Chinese film Lost In Thailand. As a result, London was pushed a rung below its No. 3 perch achieved in 2011.
Here are the top 25 city destinations based on the number of international arrivals in 2012 as recorded by Euromonitor:
1. Hong Kong – 23,770,200 visitors
2. Singapore – 21,345,700
3. Bangkok, Thailand – 15,822,600
4. London, Britain – 15,461,000
5. Macau – 13,360,800
6. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 13,339,500
7. Shenzhen, China – 12,100,400
8. New York City, USA – 11,618,000
9. Antalya, Turkey – 10,296,600
10. Paris, France – 9,780,800
11. Istanbul, Turkey – 8,820,100
12. Rome, Italy – 8,670,000
13. Dubai, UAE – 8,023,000
14. Guangzhou, China – 7,879,600
15. Phuket, Thailand – 7,217,000
16. Mecca, Saudi Arabia – 6,852,900
17. Pattaya, Thailand – 6,564,300
18. Taipei, Taiwan – 6,561,200
19. Prague, Czech Republic – 6,547,700
20. Shanghai, China – 6,539,700
21. Las Vegas, USA – 6,298,000
22. Miami, USA – 5,987,000
23. Barcelona, Spain – 5,459,100
24. Moscow, Russia – 5,036,200
25. Beijing, China – 5,035,400
Source: The Star
