International overnight visitors in the most popular city destinations worldwide 2018

Bangkok had the most international overnight visitors in 2018 with 22.78 million, followed by Paris and London with 19.1 and 19.09 million, respectively.  

 Is Bangkok the world’s number one tourist destination?

Bangkok has become increasingly popular as a tourist attraction over the past years, and its popularity looks unlikely to wane any time soon. The number of overnight visitors to Thailand’s capital has more than doubled since 2010. The city has many attractions on offer, including temples, local markets, a varied nightlife and shopping. Therefore, it may come as no surprise that Bangkok was also one of the leading cities in international visitor spending worldwide in 2018, with visitors to the city spending over 20 billion U.S. dollars. Although tourists spend a lot of money when traveling to Bangkok, it still ranked among the 30 cheapest holiday destinations in the world by average price per night per person in 2018.

Global tourism industry 

Globally, the tourism industry has experienced continuous year-over-year growth for the past decade. In 2018, the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide was estimated to reach approximately 1.4 billion – the figure having more than doubled over the past 15 years.