And Thailand’s capital will come third in the world, after London and New York, MasterCard made the projections earlier this week based on its second annual Global Destination Cities Index that looks forward and projects cross-border travel spend in 132 cities worldwide.
Authored by Global Economic Advisor for MasterCard Worldwide, Dr Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, the report ranks the world’s leading destination cities and demonstrates their interconnectivity.
The report said Asia/Pacific exhibits the strongest growth in trips and cross-border spend.
Trips will improve by 9.5 per cent in 2012 to reach 6.6 million in the top 10 destination cities in Asia/Pacific and cross-border spend will increase to US$104.7 billion (B3.1 trillion) this year from US$90.8 billion (B2.7 trillion) last year, representing a 15.3 per cent growth.
According to the report projections, Bangkok should gain the No 1 city slot in terms of projected international trips and spend within the Asia/Pacific region. The city will witness a growth of 6.5 per cent to 12.2 million trips in 2012 and an impressive 16.6 per cent to US$19.3 billion (B579 billion) in international spend.
Meanwhile, thephuketinsider.com reports that arrivals at Phuket International Airport have increased 11 per cent year-on-year for the period of January though the end of May 2012.
International passengers arriving to the island increased 13 per cent with domestic arrivals growing 9 per cent.
Total passenger traffic at the airport for the first five months of the year stood at 4,115,231, indicating that Phuket may surpass 9-million-passenger mark by year-end.