Chennai: Chennai is among the five Indian cities that has made it to the top 100 destination cities for 2016 in terms of receiving overnight visitors. Both Mumbai and Chennai have been ranked among the fastest growing destination cities globally with at least 10 lakh overnight visitors this year. Mumbai ranked at 27, Chennai: 30, Delhi: 48, Kolkata: 62; along with Pune: 91 have made it to the top 100 destination cities for 2016 as per the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index 2016. Moreover, Mumbai and Chennai have stood out as the fastest growing destination cities globally with at least one million overnight visitors in 2016, ranked at number 14 and 19, respectively.
“Mumbai is also the only Indian city to enter Asia Pacific’s Top 10 Destination Cities in terms of international overnight visitors in 2016. Ranked at number 10, right after Shanghai, the city boasts of 4.86 million visitors along with a visitor spend of $3.6 billion for the year 2016,” the study by global payments and technology company Mastercard, says.
Says Parag Bhatnagar, Vice President, Marketing, South Asia, Mastercard, “With an evolving business landscape and thriving tourist destinations, India has been witnessing a high influx of overseas travellers for both business and other purposes. This trend also projects a huge potential for Indian cities to develop as global hubs for investment in terms of business and tourism alike.”
Bangkok has emerged as the leading destination city. The Thai capital is projected to receive 21.47 million international overnight visitors in 2016, just ahead of second-ranked London, according to the sixth annual Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index. Interestingly, Asian cities make up half of the global top 10 cities – Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and Seoul – and seven of the top 10 fastest growing destination cities – Osaka, Chengdu, Colombo, Tokyo, Taipei, Xi’an and Xiamen.
