{"id":36068,"date":"2017-10-16T07:43:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T07:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/the-10-most-popular-cities-of-2017\/"},"modified":"2017-10-16T07:43:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T07:43:17","slug":"the-10-most-popular-cities-of-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/the-10-most-popular-cities-of-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 Most Popular Cities of 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

The company just released its most recent index, with the places on track to be 2017’s most visited cities.
\n{{
\nIstanbul, Turkey}}
\n{
\nNumber of projected overnight visitors: 9.24 million}
\nDespite terrorist attacks on several of the city’s tourist centers in 2016 and political instability, people aren’t hiding from Istanbul. The city continues to attract visitors with its historic architecture, gorgeous boutiques, and inventive restaurants. In fact, of all the cities studied in this survey, dining consumes the greatest percentage of visitor spend in Istanbul (33.6 percent).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia}}
\n{Number of projected overnight visitors: 12.08 million}
\nOne of the world’s best cities for street food has also proven to be an all-around holiday hot spot. While the majority of the travel across the study’s cities are conducted for leisure (as opposed to business), Kuala Lumpur still has the largest percentage of visitors there on vacation (a whopping 92.2 percent).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{New York City}}
\n{Number of projected overnight visitors: 12.36 million}
\nFrom the global cuisine of Queens to the sky-high hotels of Midtown, there’s no city on earth quite as energetic (or caffeinated) as New York. We can’t blame overnight visitors for spending $17.02 billion here in 2016 alone (which is nothing compared to Dubai, but we’ll get to that later).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{Seoul, South Korea}}
\n{Number of projected overnight visitors: 12.44 million
\n}Seoul has emerged as one of the world’s leading fashion and beauty capitals, with a travel-worthy spa scene and nocturnal vendors in trendy neighborhoods. No surprise, then, that tourists spend more on shopping while in Seoul (56.5 percent) than in any other city surveyed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{Tokyo, Japan}}
\n{Number of projected overnight visitors: 12.51 million}
\nWith new air routes, museum openings, and preparations in place to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, there’s never been a better time to visit the best city in the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{Singapore}}
\n{Number of projected overnight visitors: 13.45 million}
\nSingapore has the world’s best airport (hedge mazes included) and most Instagram-able hotel, both of which only add to the already appealing city. And with Norwegian launching new low-cost flights between London and Singapore this fall, reaching the Lion City is only getting easier.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{
\nDubai, U.A.E.}}
\n{Number of projected overnight visitors: 16.01 million}
\nIt seems like Dubai will never stop trying to outdo itself. Within the past year, the city announced plans for a miniature replica of Venice, flying drone taxis, and two new artificial islands. But all that pomp seems to be paying off\u2014quite literally. Tourists spent an incredible $28.50 billion there in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{Paris, France}}
\n{Number of projected overnight visitors: 16.13 million}
\nIt’s nearly impossible to resist the charms of France’s capital\u2014and more than 16 million travelers obviously agree. The city is known for its chic shopping and inimitable restaurants, but lodging actually proved to be the most expensive part of trips to Paris, accounting for 44.8 percent of tourists’ spending.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{
\nLondon, U.K}}.
\n{Number of projected overnight visitors: 20.01 million}
\nThere’s so much to do in London, it bears repeat visits; perhaps that explains why its number of visitors jumped past the 20 million mark this year. Luckily, an efficient transportation system means that less of the budget is spent on transit here (only 4.3 percent) than in any other city on the list, which frees you up to spend your dollars at trendy new restaurants like Gymkhana or newly renovated Blue Bar in The Berkeley hotel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{
\nBangkok, Thailand}}
\n{Number of projected overnight visitors: 20.19 million}
\nFor the second year running, Bangkok is set to be the most popular city for international travelers, thanks in large part to its appealing mix of historical sites and modern hot spots: the gilded Grand Palace complex, the towering Peninsula Bangkok, the canals and alleys filled with street food vendors\u2014and that’s just the start. Even with all that humidity, this city is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. View our complete list of the best places to visit in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year, Mastercard puts together its Global Destination Cities Index, which ranks more than 130 cities based on how popular they are with tourists. The survey not only culls visitor numbers, and travel spending data, like airline ticket purchases and souvenir purchases, but also predicts where people will be visiting within the next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-36068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36068"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=36068"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=36068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}