Where the world goes on holiday
10 Most Visited Cities by International Tourists
Bangkok, Paris and London trade the top three spots every year. Below them, a familiar list of Asian and Middle Eastern megacities.
Counting tourists is hard — Bangkok counts every overnight stay, Paris counts hotel nights, Dubai counts airport arrivals — but the rough leaderboard stays remarkably stable. These ten cities together pull in over 200 million international visitors a year.
How we chose these ↓ — jump to the full scoring system at the bottom of the article.
Hong Kong, China · pop. 7,534,200
Even with recent dips driven by political and pandemic factors, Hong Kong still ranks among the most-visited cities globally, driven mostly by mainland Chinese travel through the high-speed rail and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. The Hong Kong Tourism Board reported a strong rebound through 2024 and 2025.
The city is also one of our most expensive destinations and a leading billionaire city.
Seoul, South Korea · pop. 9,635,445
Seoul's K-pop and K-drama-driven tourism wave has put it firmly in the global top ten, especially for visitors from China, Japan, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The Korea Tourism Organization reports over 11 million international visitors to the country in 2024, with most spending substantial time in Seoul.
The HYBE building in Yongsan, the Gangnam district, and the Hongdae nightlife area are now organised tourist destinations in their own right. Itaewon and Myeongdong remain the food and shopping anchors.
Tokyo, Japan · pop. 13,613,660
Tokyo's international tourist numbers exploded once the yen weakened past ¥150 to the dollar. The Japan National Tourism Organization recorded record-breaking inbound numbers in 2024 and 2025, with Tokyo absorbing the largest share.
Visa-free entry for most major source markets (the US, EU, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan) plus a strong domestic transport network make Tokyo one of the easiest megacities in the world to visit. It also tops our best food cities and best public transit rankings.
Istanbul, Türkiye · pop. 15,701,602
Istanbul has been booming since the 2010s and Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism now reports over 20 million international visitors to the city per year, more than any European city outside London and Paris. The weak lira has made the city dramatically more affordable for visitors from euro and dollar economies.
The Hagia Sophia, the Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar anchor the historic itinerary. The city also straddles two continents, which is itself a substantial part of the marketing pitch — see also oldest continuously inhabited cities.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia · pop. 1,982,112
Kuala Lumpur's regional flight network (Tourism Malaysia counts over 50 direct international destinations from KLIA) and low costs keep it firmly in the global top ten, especially for intra-Asian travel. The Petronas Twin Towers remain among the world's most-recognised modern landmarks.
Malaysia's relatively liberal visa-on-arrival policy and the strength of the ringgit against most regional currencies make the city accessible to visitors who would find Tokyo or Singapore prohibitively expensive.
Singapore, Singapore · pop. 5,535,002
Singapore's compact 730 km² size belies its visitor numbers — over 14 million international arrivals make it one of the densest tourist cities on Earth by visitors per square kilometre. Changi Airport's regular award as the world's best airport is a substantial part of the city's tourism marketing.
The Singapore Tourism Board reports that the average visit length is roughly 3.5 days, with Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay and Sentosa anchoring most itineraries. Singapore also tops our greenest cities and best public transit lists.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates · pop. 4,248,200
Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism reports roughly 17 million international overnight visitors a year, arriving through one of the world's busiest international airports. Most rarely leave the emirate, since Dubai functions as a destination in its own right rather than a gateway.
The Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall, Palm Jumeirah and the Atlantis resort form a tightly packaged tourist itinerary; the emirate's tourism strategy explicitly aims to extend visits past the three-day average.
England, United Kingdom · pop. 8,908,083
London receives roughly 20 million international visitors a year according to VisitBritain, more than any other city in Europe except Paris, and it pulls in another 80 million domestic overnight visitors. The British Museum, the National Gallery and the Tate Modern are all among the world's ten most-visited museums.
The city's theatre district (the West End) sells more tickets per year than Broadway, and the food scene has gone from punchline to genuinely world-class in the past two decades.
Bangkok, Thailand · pop. 5,527,948
Bangkok routinely tops Mastercard's Global Destination Cities Index for overnight international visitors. It is the gateway to all of mainland Southeast Asia, with Suvarnabhumi Airport handling roughly 60 million passengers a year pre-pandemic.
The city's mix of street food, palaces, nightlife and weekend markets keeps return visitation high — see also our best nightlife list. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration estimates that tourism accounts for over 15% of the city's GDP.
Île-de-France, France · pop. 2,133,111
Paris has been the world's most-visited city for most of the last two decades on most ranking methodologies. The Louvre alone pulls roughly 9 million visitors a year (making it the world's most-visited museum), and the Eiffel Tower receives 6–7 million paid visitors annually.
The 2024 Summer Olympics gave the city its biggest single-year visitor boost in decades. Île-de-France tourism authorities count roughly 50 million annual visitors including domestic travellers — a number that makes Paris also one of our most expensive cities.
How we chose these
We combined three of the most respected annual rankings: the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index (which counts overnight international visitor arrivals), Euromonitor International's Top 100 City Destinations, and national tourism statistics published by each country's tourism authority. Numbers don't always reconcile — different sources count cruise passengers, day-trippers and transit visitors differently — so we picked cities that appear consistently in the top ten on all three. The exact order is the most-cited recent figure.
Sources & further reading
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For entertainment only. Rankings on this page are editorial picks compiled from public sources for fun and discovery — they aren't a scientific measurement. Population figures and place details come from open data; see the linked place pages for sources.