Baku ranks 96th in the list of top travel destinations of the world sharing the same position with Washington, Melbourne, Rio-de-Janeiro, Frankfurt and San-Paulo.

The list was developed by analysts of Euromonitor International, a UK-based strategic market research center.

Thus, in 2012 Baku was visited by 1.709m foreign travelers. This marked a rise of 7.5% from 2011.

The top cities for the number of arrivals were Hong Kong (23.770m people) and Singapore (21.345m people). The top ten cities also include Bangkok, London, Macau, Kuala Lumpur, Shenzhen, New York, Antalya and Paris.

Six of the top ten countries in the list are Asian countries which points to significance of this region on international tourism market, according to Euromonitor International. Thirty two cities from the general list are located in Asia-Pacific region.

Hong Kong drew 23.8 million visitors in 2012, outpacing Singapore (21.3 million) and Bangkok (15.8 million). Great part of travelers to Singapore is from Malaysia and Indonesia.

London dropped by one position in the ranking ending up 4th this time (15.461 tourists and 2.3% rise from 2011). The Olympics held in the British capital in the summer of 2012 had a sudden impact on the number of tourists. In the summer of 2012, London was visited by 5% fewer tourists than in summer of 2011.

Along Baku, the list of most visited cities also includes the cities in Russia and Ukraine. So, Moscow ended up 24th (5.36m travelers), Saint Petersburg 55th (2.714m people) and Kiev 87th (1.874m).

Euromonitor International also notes that the countries that experienced ‘Arab spring’ in 2012 could restore the influx of tourists to a certain degree even though it is still slower than indicator in the post-revolution period.

Cairo notes a rise in a number of touristic influx by 7.7%.

The future is for travelers from China and Russia, according to Euromonitor International. The top five countries with the highest number of tourists traveling abroad was Germany, US, UK, China and Russia.

According to forecasts of the organization, by 2017 China and Germany will share the second place in this category with Russia ending up third.

More about: