KL among top 10 on global destination cities index

KUALA LUMPUR ranks eighth among 132 destination cities in the world based on total international overnight visitor arrivals, according to MasterCard’s third annual Global Destination Cities Index.

MasterCard global economic adviser Dr Yuwa Hedrick-Wong said, for this year, overnight visitor arrivals is forecasted to be 9.2 million, a 3.9% increase from 8.86 million in last year.

Total international overnight visitor spending is forecast to be US$7.8bil (RM24mil) this year, up 18% from US$6.4bil, which puts Kuala Lumpur in 13th place relative to the other global destination cities and seventh within Asia Pacific.

Moving up two spots from last year, Yuwa said Kuala Lumpur is in a strong position to sustain a very robust level of growth. “It has its advantage due to its connection with countries in the Middle East, which is quite unique for asian destination cities.

“Obviously, there are many issues that Middle East countries find comfortable in Malaysia on the basis of religion and shared practices, apart from other interesting factors and this will definitely continue to boost the number of international visitors,” said Yuwa after a media briefing and launching of the third annual MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index 2013 at the St. Regis Bangkok, Thailand recently.

On how the city can further boost and promote investment, Yuwa said this can be brought about with public and private sector partnership. “The public sector has to increase investments in public infrastructure, facilities and local transport system to ensure traffic jam is reduced and the environment is protected.

“However, private businesses have their roles to play, too, by investing in better restaurants and hotels, among other things. “When this partnership is sustained, we can have a virtual circle, which sees an improvement in the quality of life contributing towards more visitor arrivals,” he said.

Among countries in Asia, Kuala Lumpur came in third, outranking developed cities such as Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo, Taipei, Beijing and Guangzhou.

The index also revealed Kuala Lumpur’s five most important feeder cities, which are Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Melbourne and Manila. Earlier during the launch, Bangkok was announced as the No.1 city for travel this year, beating London, which was in the top spot for last year.

While surpassing London by a slim margin, Bangkok demonstrated growth rates of better than 18% in 2011 and last year, with further 9.8% growth this year.
The study looked at the highest international visitor numbers in 2013, with London, Paris, Singapore and New York rounding the top five.

A noticeable trend in this year’s report was the dominance of the Asia Pacific region. Of the 132 cities ranked, 42 are Asian countries. Bangkok is followed by Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo and five of the top 10 in 2013 are in the Greater China region.

The MasterCard Index of Global Destination Cities ranks cities in terms of the number of their total international visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors in the destination cities, and gives visitors and passenger growth forecasts for this year.
-thestar online.