More foreign tourists in Bucharest than in Athens

According to a top made by Euromonitor, the capital of Romania was placed in the middle ranking of the most visited cities in the world over Athens, Munich, Mexico City, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Milan, Lisbon, São Paulo, Venice, Florence or Washington DC, according to Mediafax.

In 2010 Bucharest had 2.1 million visitors, 5.4 percent more than in 2009, ranking 55 in the aforementioned ranking.

The ranking shows the decline of the European cities due to the state debt crisis, which has affected tourism in the euro area, and the increase of the number of tourist destinations in the Asia-Pacific region, which is in a boom.

The most visited city in the world in 2010 was Hong Kong, with almost 20 million foreign tourists, followed by Singapore (18.2 million), London (14.5 million) and Macao, which attracted over 13 million foreign tourists.

Singapore attracted 16 percent more visitors than in 2009 due to the government programme focused on luxury travel, to the exhibitions and conferences they organised, the improvement of accommodation and services for tourists and promotion of attractions and sightseeing.

London is the most popular European city, due to a wide range of attractions and sites, appealing for all type of visitors.

In the Central, Eastern and South-East Europe, Prague and Moscow had the largest number of visitors (3.7 million each), followed by Vienna (3.5 million), Kiev (3.3 million), Budapest (2, 6 million), St. Petersburg (2.5 million) and Warsaw (2.4 million).

The most visited city on the American continent was New York, but it was listed 8 with 8.9 million foreign visitors in 2010.

Paris was ranked 9, with 8.1 million foreign tourists and Rome 14 with 5.6 million.

Barcelona and Las Vegas were ranked 16 and 17 with 5.1 million visitors each.

Translated by: Denisse-Meda Bucura

MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University