The 2018 MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index has offered an important analysis of travel to and within major cities around the globe.
The Sub Saharan index released by Mastercard shows that Lagos, Dakar, Kampala, Nairobi and Accra as top cities on the continent. While global top cities Bangkok, London and Paris, led the pack, underscoring the importance of robust infrastructure and both business and leisure attractions.
The report also shows Lagos is the top spot in Sub-Saharan Africa this year, with roughly 1.5 million international overnight visitors. Interestingly, visitors tend to stay in Lagos for seven nights and spend only $57 per day, on average, considerably less than its Sub Saharan Africa counterparts. Visitors to Lagos, are most often from the USA, United Kingdom and China.
The Mastercard Index, which expanded this year to look at global 162 cities, is not simply a ranking of the top travel destinations. Based on visitor volume and spend for the 2017 calendar year, the in-depth analysis also provides a growth forecast for 2018 and for the first time projected into average length of stay and amount spent per day.
According to the report
“With the global economy buzzing, the annual growth of international overnight visitors to the Top 10 destination cities was up across the broad in 2017 except for Seoul, which saw a dip.
“The forecast for 2018 indicates across-the-board growth, with Istanbul expecting the largest uptick in visitors. In Sun Saharan Africa, the annual growth of international overnight visitors to Dakar, Nairobi and Accra remained static at 0.8 million in Dakar and 0.4 million in both Nairobi and Accra”
The Mastercard Index of Global Destination Cities ranks cities in terms of the number of their total international overnight visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors in the destination cities in 2017 and gives international overnight visitor growth forecasts for 2018.
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