Which cities are fastest growing for tourism?

skyline of chongqing at night
By laurencroft


Thought your city was pretty tourism-packed? Unless you live in Asia, you’re probably wrong.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) released a data report last week detailing the world’s fastest growing tourism cities – and they’re not what you’d expect.

The top ten are all located in Asia, and the top five cities for tourism are all in China – showing that Asian cities are completely ahead of everyone else when it comes to tourism growth, especially over the next 10 years.

Chongqing, (14 per cent growth per year) leads the pack, followed by Guangzhou (13.1 per cent), Shanghai (12.8 per cent) and Beijing (12 per cent).

The other cities on the top ten list are Chengdu (11.2 per cent), Manila (10.9 per cent), Delhi (10.8 per cent), Shenzhen (10.7 per cent), Kuala Lumpur (10.1 per cent) and Jakarta (10 per cent).

Gloria Guevara, President & CEO, WTTC, said that these cities benefitted from tourism growth in more ways than one.

“The power of Asian cities when it comes to driving the Travel & Tourism sector is clear to see in this new data.

“However, not only do these cities contribute significantly to their country’s tourism sector, tourism is an important generator of economic growth and jobs within the cities themselves,” she said.

The ranking isn’t exactly a shock given Asian cities astronomical tourism success – Shanghai has an annual tourism contribution of US$30 billion, making it the largest in the world.

Beijing is hot on its tail at US$29 billion.

Added together, both cities make up over 20 per cent of Travel & Tourism economic impact.

And if you think that’s impressive – Tokyo makes up 18 per cent of Japan’s Travel & Tourism economic impact, and is ranked sixth in the world.

The report also said that “the dominance of the Chinese market is clear, both in terms of future growth and overall size and as a main source market for destinations in the wider Asia Pacific region.”

And we aren’t arguing with data like this.

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