Hanoi made the top 10 on the world’s fastest travel destinations list with a 16.4% annual growth rate in the 2009-2016 period, according to the MasterCard Global Destinations Cities Index 2017.

Hanoi was placed 7th, up from 13th last year. In 2016, the Vietnamese capital welcomed 2.94 million overnight visitors whose total spending was US$1.1 billion.

HCMC ranked 15th on the global list with foreign arrivals growing 11.1% on average since 2009. 

Osaka led as the fastest growing city at 24%, fueled by strong growth in visitors from the United States, China, Malaysia and South Korea.

The index also ranks the top ten most popular cities in the world, with Bangkok topping the chart with 19.41 million overnight visitors last year, and this number is expected to grow by 4% in 2017. 

London came in a close second with 19.06 million visitors, followed by Paris, Dubai and Singapore.

Dubai was at the top of the ranking for visitor spending. In 2016, its 14.9 million international overnight visitors spent US$28.5 billion, with more than 10% growth forecast for 2017. New York and London ranked second and third, respectively.

Globally, international overnight visitor arrivals and spending in the 132 destinations have grown by 55.2% and 41.1% respectively since 2009, significantly outpacing real GDP growth in the same period.

SGT