Top 10 Cities by International Tourist Arrivals, 2025
International Tourist Arrivals by City (2025)
At the city level, “international arrivals” are best read as inbound travel trips linked to a destination’s tourism ecosystem (gateways, accommodation, attractions, and services), not unique people.
Global international tourist arrivals
1.52B (2025)
UN Tourism: +4% year-on-year; record year in the post-pandemic era.
International arrivals to top 100 cities
702M (2025)
Euromonitor: +8% year-on-year; these cities account for ~46% of global inbound tourism.
Top 10 cities combined
208.7M (2025)
Computed from the Top 10 city totals; ~29.73% of the Top 100 total.
Arrivals are a practical demand signal: they correlate with connectivity, room inventory, and the depth of a city’s visitor services. They do not measure value per trip (spend, length of stay) or impact (congestion, housing pressure). In 2025, the headline is concentration: a small set of mega-hubs captures a large share of city-level inbound travel.
Methodology: City-level arrivals are reported as inbound trips associated with a destination city. Counts can include repeat travel by the same person across a year and reflect how trips are attributed to city destinations.
Units: values below are shown in millions of international trips (M). Shares are computed against the Top 100 city total of 702.0M.
Top 10 Cities by International Arrivals (2025)
Arrivals in millions of international trips; growth is YoY (%). Shares are computed as a share of the Top 100 city total (702.0M).
Bangkok, Thailand
Hong Kong, China (SAR)
London, United Kingdom
Macau, China (SAR)
Istanbul, Türkiye
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Mecca (Makkah), Saudi Arabia
Antalya, Türkiye
Paris, France
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| Rank | City, Country | Arrivals (M) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bangkok, Thailand | 30.3 | −7% |
| 2 | Hong Kong, China (SAR) | 23.2 | +6% |
| 3 | London, United Kingdom | 22.7 | +4% |
| 4 | Macau, China (SAR) | 20.4 | +14% |
| 5 | Istanbul, Türkiye | 19.7 | +6% |
| 6 | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | 19.5 | +7% |
| 7 | Mecca (Makkah), Saudi Arabia | 18.7 | +7% |
| 8 | Antalya, Türkiye | 18.6 | +8% |
| 9 | Paris, France | 18.3 | +4% |
| 10 | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | 17.3 | +5% |
Chart 1. Top 10 international arrivals (2025). Units: million international trips.
What 2025 means for readers
For travellers, high-arrival cities usually mean more direct connections and deeper hotel supply, but also higher peak-season crowding. For businesses, arrivals are a demand proxy for hospitality, retail and events. For city managers, they are a capacity signal: transport, public space, safety and housing impacts often become the constraint long before marketing does.
FAQ
Is an “arrival” the same as a unique visitor?
Why do hubs dominate the top of the ranking?
Does a higher arrival count mean “better tourism”?
Why can a leisure city outrank a capital?
How should I compare cities fairly?
What drives year-on-year jumps?
Concentration & Regional Dashboard (2025)
This section quantifies how quickly arrivals accumulate at the top and adds global context using UN Tourism regional totals for 2025.
Top 100 cities (international trips)
702.0M (2025)
Euromonitor: +8% YoY; ~46% of global inbound tourism.
Top 10 cities combined
208.7M (2025)
~29.73% of the Top 100 total (computed).
Global inbound tourism
1.52B (2025)
UN Tourism: +4% YoY; regional totals shown below.
| Rank | City | Arrivals (M) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bangkok | 30.3 | −7% |
| 2 | Hong Kong | 23.2 | +6% |
| 3 | London | 22.7 | +4% |
| 4 | Macau | 20.4 | +14% |
| 5 | Istanbul | 19.7 | +6% |
| 6 | Dubai | 19.5 | +7% |
| 7 | Mecca (Makkah) | 18.7 | +7% |
| 8 | Antalya | 18.6 | +8% |
| 9 | Paris | 18.3 | +4% |
| 10 | Kuala Lumpur | 17.3 | +5% |
Chart 2. Pareto curve: cumulative share of the Top 100 city total (702.0M) captured by the Top 10.
Chart 3. Scatter: Top 10 cities (x = arrivals in M, y = YoY %).
Global context (UN Tourism): arrivals by region in 2025
Units: million international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors). YoY is % change vs 2024.
| Region | Arrivals (M) | YoY vs 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | 793 | +4% |
| Asia & Pacific | 331 | +6% |
| Americas | 218 | +1% |
| Middle East | 100 | +3% |
| Africa | 81 | +8% |
| World | 1,523 | +4% |
Chart 4. Regional arrivals (UN Tourism, 2025). Units: million arrivals.
Regional totals provide the macro backdrop for city-level rankings: Europe remains the largest destination region by arrivals, while Asia & Pacific continues to recover and expand.
Interpretation: what the 2025 arrivals pattern implies
Arrivals at city scale are a systems test: capacity, process and resident tolerance determine whether volume becomes value.
In 2025, inbound travel returned to record levels globally, and city demand remained highly concentrated. For top-tier hubs, arrivals function less like a marketing result and more like a stress-and-capacity indicator. The binding constraints tend to appear in airport throughput, last-mile mobility, peak-hour crowding, safety management, and the interaction between accommodation supply and housing markets.
The same arrivals number can represent either a scalable economic engine or a governance stress test. Interpreting “most visited” therefore requires pairing volume with operational capacity and value capture (stay length, spend per trip, dispersion across districts and seasons).
Policy takeaways
What city leaders, investors and operators can infer from arrivals-heavy concentration.
- Capacity planning becomes unavoidable in top hubs: transport, pedestrian space and attraction access need peak-demand design.
- Border and processing friction shapes competition: visa rules, airport reliability and throughput affect destination choice.
- Seasonality is measurable risk: diversified demand profiles (leisure + business + events) tend to be more resilient.
- Housing and liveability trade-offs are central: short-term accommodation growth often becomes the political constraint.
- Value beats volume: spend per trip, length of stay and spatial dispersion matter more for welfare than raw arrivals.
Practical reading rule: treat arrivals as the “size of the pipe” and combine it with indicators that measure “value through the pipe” (receipts, occupancy, stay length, service quality, and local liveability metrics).
Sources
Primary references used for the metrics and context on this page.
Euromonitor International — Press release (Dec 2025): Top 100 City Destinations Index 2025
Provides Top 100 cities aggregate (702M), year-on-year change (+8%), share of global inbound tourism (~46%) and the leading city for arrivals (Bangkok 30.3M), plus regional growth notes.
https://www.euromonitor.com/newsroom/press-releases/december-2025/euromonitor-international-unveils-worlds-top-100-city-destinations-for-2025
Euromonitor International — Index overview article (Dec 2025): Top 100 City Destinations Index 2025
Background on the index framework (six pillars) and narrative context for arrivals and city performance.
https://www.euromonitor.com/article/top-100-city-destinations-index-2025-driving-growth-and-innovation
UN Tourism — World Tourism Barometer (January 2026 excerpt)
Global arrivals in 2025 (1.52B) and headline growth (+4% YoY).
https://pre-webunwto.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2026-01/World_Tourism%20Barometer_Jan26_excerpt_v2.pdf
UN Tourism — Factsheet: International Tourism 2025 (Jan 2026)
Regional totals (Europe 793M; Asia & Pacific 331M; Americas 218M; Middle East 100M; Africa 81M) and regional YoY changes.
https://pre-webunwto.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2026-01/Factsheet-International-Tourism-2025-Barometer-Jan-2026.pdf
World Bank — Tourism arrivals (indicator metadata)
Standard definition context for “international tourism, number of arrivals” at the country level.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ST.INT.ARVL
