Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok has become one of the world’s top destination cities for tourism. In 2013, MasterCard’s Global Destination Cities Index ranked it as the top destination city in the world based on international visitor arrivals. With nearly 16 million international overnight visitors estimated for that year, Bangkok finished just ahead of London and Paris on the index. It was the first time since the index was launched in 2010 that the top spot had gone to an Asian city. Bangkok’s emergence as a top destination reflects in part the growing importance of Southeast Asia within the international business community, but may also be due to efforts to change the city’s image and overcome negative perceptions over issues such as prostitution.