Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and Seoul are hailed as the most popular travel destinations in Asia Pacific, according to a new study.
Mastercard’s annual Asia Pacific Destinations Index reported that those tourist hotspots attracted over one-fifth (22%) of all overnight visitors to the region in 2018. Carrying the region’s greatest travel spending, the five Asian countries earned over a quarter (25.2%) of travel expenditure among the 161 cities studied.
The region’s top four travel destinations in 2018 did not move far from their spots since 2018. This is the ninth year that Bangkok and Singapore secured their spots in the list, having recorded 22.8 million and 14.7 million overnight international arrivals respectively.
Kuala Lumpur, Asia’s top destination in 2009, went behind Singapore with 13.8 million travelers, but still grabbed the third place. Tokyo took the fourth spot, boasting 12.9 million guests throughout the year.
Meanwhile, Seoul, the capital of South Korea, was a new title holder in the most popular travel destinations in Asia Pacific in 2018, stealing it from Phuket the previous year.
The spiraling number of visitors attest to the expansive growth of inward travel to the region over the past decade.
Asia Pacific reported 342.2 million business and leisure trips in 2018, a massive increase from 159.1 million in 2009. Travel spending in the region during the same period more than doubled to $281.1 billion from $117.6 billion. Data shows that 49.8% of those trips came from the region’s top 20 cities.
The growth of tourism in the top Asian tourist attractions is largely attributed to outbound Chinese traveler. Their number rose from 10.5 million in 2009 to 62.4 million in 2018. China is considered as the world’s second-largest outbound travel market after the U.S. Meanwhile, Okinawa, Japan was identified as the region’s fastest-growing travel destination.
