Mastercard published the top travel destinations this year as well. Bangkok, London, and Paris are the top three, and, while Budapest is not among the top 10 in terms of the number of tourists, it placed quite well on another list. Index reports that Budapest is the fifth destination among the fastest developing European cities, ahead of Moscow and Berlin.
Mastercard compiles a list each year of the 132 most visited cities in the world, based on how many tourists visited the given city and how much they’ve spent there. The latest publication contains some predictions regarding the growth in the number of tourists and transit visitors, which will provide a better understanding of why people travel and how much they spend during their travels.
In the case of all 10 most popular big cities, the number of international tourists booking hotels has grown in 2016.
According to the 2017 predictions, further growth is to be expected, except for New York, where a slight fallback is forecasted.
The biggest growth will be noted in the case of Tokyo, where the visiting rate may grow by 12.2 percent.
The list of the most popular cities in terms of expenditures of international overnight guests looks a lot different. Tourists spend most nights in Dubai, and at the bottom of the TOP 10 list is Barcelona. The latter is not in the top 10 list based on the number of tourists.
It is also revealed what tourists spend most during their stay in the 20 most popular cities:
Provisions, restaurants, food: Seoul: 47%, Istanbul 33.6%, Prague 29.3%
Shopping: London: 46.7%, Osaka: 43.4%, Tokyo: 43.1%
Lodging: Paris: 44.8%, Milan: 40.4%, Rome: 40.4%.
The less amount spent on public transport is in London (4.3%), Singapore (4.6%) and Hong Kong (4.6%).
Just as in Kuala Lumpur, 92.2 is the percentage of tourists visiting Budapest for personal reasons. Budapest placed 39th with its 3.7 million tourists, which is a lot behind Vienna (6.42 million) or Prague (6.11 million). However, with a 5.8 percent rise, Budapest is the fifth among the fastest developing destinations in Europe.
A new strategy was drawn up to make Budapest more popular among wealthier tourists
The yearly growth rate of the Hungarian capital city is 8.6 percent, which is ahead of Moscow, Berlin, and Amsterdam.
The busiest touristic season in Budapest is the end of the summer.
In 2016, tourists have spent more than 1 billion USD in Budapest altogether, mostly for provisions (34.1%), and least for public transport (6.2%). The second biggest expenditure is represented by shopping (23%), followed lodgings (14.8%) and by other services (13.2%).
featured image: László Cseke
Ce: bm
Source: index.hu
