THE Europe is winning the tourism game in 2022, says a new report from a UK-based market research firm called Euromonitor.
Each year its annual report compares the attractiveness of 100 cities around the world across six categories including tourism policy and performance, sustainability, infrastructure, health and safety and economic performance.
In the pre-Covid era, when the index ranked top destinations by number of international arrivals, the top of the list was dominated by Asian destinations – with Hong Kong and Bangkok leading the ranking.
But now, for the second consecutive year, Paris held first place in Top 100 City Destinations Index 2022 while eight of the top 10 cities are its European neighbors.
The new ranking, obtained exclusively by CNN praises the French capital as “the best performing destination in the world”, due to its “exceptional performance in the political pillars and tourism attractiveness, tourist infrastructure and tourist performance”.
positive year
Dubai once again took second place on the list, but it ranked first when it comes to actual international arrivals. More than 12 million trips have been made to Dubai this year – nearly double last year’s performance. This would have been helped in a big way by the delay of Expo 2020 Dubai, which ran from October 2021 to March 2022.
Globally, arrivals have increased by more than 80% this year in terms of the number of trips.
“While 2022 has been a positive year for the travel industry, the road to full post-pandemic recovery is a long one and government support remains critical across all regions,” Euromonitor said.
The company pointed to sharply rising inflation, worsening economic conditions and the war in Ukraine as factors likely to affect the speed of tourism’s recovery.
asia must grow
A total of 40 European cities feature in the ranking, with Italy (six cities), Spain (five cities) and Greece (four cities) being the great highlights of Europe.
Amsterdam ranked third, Madrid four, Rome five and London climbed two spots this year to sixth. Munich and Berlin also climbed two places in the rankings – at number seven and eight respectively – and Barcelona moved up one place to number 9.
New York ranked last in the top 10, although the report noted that US cities showed “strong recovery in tourism performance” overall.
Asia was a mixed performer due to Covid-related travel restrictions, but Asian cities saw some of the biggest jumps in performance. Singapore jumped 30 positions on the list and was praised by Euromonitor for being “the most business-friendly destination, with simplified taxation and a large share of qualified employees”.
Africa and the Middle East performed best in terms of health and safety.
Intraregional travel, the relaxation of Covid-related restrictions and the resumption of international travel were key to the attractiveness of the cities that shone in 2022.
However, Euromonitor reported, “Asia is the region to watch in 2023 as the return of international travel, both inbound and outbound, is sure to shake up the rankings.”
Euromonitor 2022 Top 10 City Destination Index:
- Paris
- Dubai
- amsterdam
- Madrid
- Pomegranate
- London
- Munich
- Berlin
- barcelona
- New York
Source: CNN Brasil
Johanna Foster is an expert opinion writer with over 7 years of experience. She has a reputation for delivering insightful and thought-provoking articles on a variety of subjects. Her work can be found on some of the top online news websites, and she is currently lending her voice to the world stock market.
