Ha Noi and HCM City are among the 20 most visited destinations in their region, accordingto Mastercards Asia Pacific Destinations Index.

Ha Noi ranked 15th and HCM City 18th,and they saw an average daily spending of US$78 and $98 last year.

The five most popular destinations for international travellers were Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, and Seoul, which welcomed 22 per cent of all overnight visitors to the regions top 161 cities and regional centres.

Primarily driven by explosive growth in outbound travel from mainland China, these five cities are also capturing more than 25 percent of total international travel spending in the region.

In 2018 the Asia Pacific receivedtravellersmaking 342.2 million business and leisure trips, up from 159.1 million in 2009, representing an 8.9 percent annual growth rate.

In the same period travel spending too more than doubled from $117.6 billion to $281.1billion, a growth rate of 10.2 per cent.

“With the top 20 cities attracting nearly half (49.8 percent) of all international overnight arrivals to the 161 destinations …, it is important to understand not onlyhow continuously rising travel numbers impact cities and destinations for the better, but also the challenges they pose,” Rupert Naylor, senior vice president, data & services, Asia Pacific, Mastercard, said.

“This equipsgovernments, merchants and the global travel industry with the information and insights they need to better serve their residents and visitors.”

The Asia Pacific Destinations Index is a regional subset of the Global Destination Cities Index launched in 2011. — VNS