The capital of Thailand, Bangkok, was the city that received the largest number of international visitors throughout 2017, with a total of 20.05 million visitors, according to the study Global Destination Cities Index 2018 recently published by Mastercard.
The second city in this ranking is London (United Kingdom), with 19.83 million visitors, while the French capital, Paris, occupies the third position with 17.44 million international visitors. Dubai (United Arab Emirates) is fourth (15.79 million) and Singapore fifth (13.91 million).
Two Spanish cities are among the top 20 in the ranking. These are Palma de Mallorca, which with 8.78 million international visitors in 2017 occupies the 16th position, and Barcelona, which is 17th with a total of 8.69 million visitors.
The Mastercard study, which has been conducted for a decade, analyzes data from a total of 162 cities around the world.
In addition to the number of international visitors, Mastercard's Global Destination Index also provides data on visitors' average spending and average length of stay.
Among the ten most visited cities in 2017, the one with the highest average daily spending per visitor was Dubai, with 537 dollars, followed by Paris (301 dollars) and Singapore (286 dollars daily average).
By average nights of stay, the leader among the top ten was New York, with 8.3 nights. Tokyo was second, with 6.5 nights of average stay, and London and Istanbul followed with 5.8 nights.