Meet the most visited cities in the world in 2019

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
• Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)

1 of 10 | Position 10: Istanbul, Turkey. The market research company Euromonitor, based in Great Britain, has published its report Top 100 City Destinations 2019. The tenth most visited city? Istanbul that had 13,433,000 international arrivals in 2018 and an estimated 14,715,900 arrivals in 2019. (Credit: David Cannon / Getty Images) →

2 of 10 | Position 9: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Asia has 43 cities in the top 100 places in the Euromonitor ranking, including Kuala Lumpur at number nine. (Credit: Walkerssk / Pixabay)

3 of 10 | Position 8: New York. The only city in the USA in the top 20 of the ranking is New York, also named in early 2019 as the "most exciting city in the world" by the Time Out Index 2019. (Credit: Lukas Kloeppel)

4 out of 10 | Position 7: Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This city in the Middle East is ranked number seven on the list of Euromonitor. (Credit: GIUSEPPE CACACE / AFP / Getty Images)

5 out of 10 | Position 6: Paris, France. After Brexit, Euromonitor predicts that Paris will benefit from visitors choosing the French capital over London. For now, it's at number six. (Credit: FRED DUFOUR / AFP / Getty Images)

6 of 10 | Position 5: Singapore. In number five of the ranking is Singapore, also named by Euromonitor as a city to observe closely. (Credit: Singapore Tourism Board)

7 of 10 | Position 4: Macao. Known for its casinos and theme parks, Macao has the fourth largest number of international arrivals. (Credit: Istockphoto)

8 of 10 | Position 3: London. The uncertainty of Brexit could mean that the British capital descends in the list of Euromonitor, but for now it is in number three. (Credit: Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)

9 of 10 | Position 2: Bangkok, Thailand. A 6.9% growth is expected in 2019 arrivals for this city. (Credit: Nivolas Asfouri / AFP / Getty Images)

10 out of 10 | Position 1: Hong Kong. Despite months of political turmoil, it is estimated that the total number of international tourists in Hong Kong is 26 million, this year, making it the most visited city in the world. (Credit: Andy Yeung)

(CNN) - Hong Kong has been surrounded by political turmoil and protests in 2019, but that has not prevented it from being named the most visited city in the world this year.

According to the Top 100 City Destinations 2019 report by Euromonitor, a market research company based in Britain, Hong Kong will accumulate 26 million visits by international tourists before the end of the year.

• MIRA: Know the ranking of the five best places to travel in New Year

Which represents a flash of good news for the city, whose tourism industry has been affected after anti-government protests that began to intensify in June. It is believed that violent clashes with the police, which sometimes led to the closure of the Hong Kong airport, discouraged many visitors, but those who have arrived were able to enjoy incident-free trips.

Euromonitor notes that due to this situation there has been a 8.7% decrease in the almost 30 million people who visited the city in 2018.

And not only have been the urban protests. Elsewhere, 2019 has also been characterized by discussions about excessive tourism, as cities set stricter limits on travelers' misbehavior and reconsider strategies to handle the high numbers of visitors who grow out of control.

Despite these high issues, urban centers remain at the top of many lists on the sites that are mandatory to visit.

In fact, other popular cities for tourism include Bangkok and London: both maintained their second and third place respectively in the Euromonitor ranking.

Urban centers in Asia continue to dominate the lists. Something that, according to Euromonitor, is due to the growing travel power of Chinese tourists.

• READ: The best countries in the world to visit in 2019, according to the World Economic Forum

Asia also recorded the fastest growth in the number of international arrivals, Euromonitor said.

Now, the recent ranking does not simply repeat last year's trends, as Istanbul reached 10th place, two positions higher compared to 2019.

The trends of the report

The Euromonitor report is on the heels of the Mastercard's Global Destination Cities index, which measured international visitors with stays of at least one night in different destinations. Bangkok was first on that list.

The Euromonitor report includes data on tourist arrivals to more than 400 cities in the world, defining the term "arrivals" as the number of international travelers visiting another country for at least 24 hours.

This means that both national tourists, such as those traveling for a single day and cruise passengers are not included in the figures.

As for the top 100 cities in the rankings, most are in Asia, then Europe, America, the Middle East and Africa.

• MIRA: These are the most popular cities in the world

Euromonitor predicts that uncertainty vis-à-vis the European could affect the figures in the future: although London is currently in place number three, it is predicted that the city could fall to fifth place.

The report also points to cities to look closely at the future, including Singapore that is currently located at number five and experienced a 5.3% increase in visitor arrivals during 2018.

Euromonitor highlights the “strong tourism strategy” of Singapore and the ability to “market the authentic local experience to offer authenticity and variety”.

Local experiences

The Euromonitor report suggests that the search for “local experience” resonates throughout the world. In Europe, some of the most famous destinations such as Milan (35th place) and Vienna (37th place) have fallen in the rankings, but cities in Croatia, Slovenia and Sweden have climbed the list.

"They are proving to be popular to the extent that travelers seek new and more localized experiences, as well as less crowded places," notes Euromonitor. "The popularity and a greater number of low-cost transportation companies to these destinations has also favored the growth of previously less explored places," the company added.

Naturally, the facility to reach a city plays an important role - also infrastructure improvements - and, as expected, they impact the numbers. Euromonitor highlights the Egyptian city of Hurghada, with coast in the Red Sea, as another to observe closely thanks to the improvement in Terminal 2 of its international airport. The city climbed 45 places this year and reached number 82 on the Euromonitor list.

In the United States, the faithful New York City (number 8 in general) leads the way, while Miami (27th place), Los Angeles (29th place), Las Vegas (34th place) Honolulu (81st place) went down in the classification.

• READ: The safest cities in the world to visit in 2019 (according to the Economist Intelligence Unit)

The first city in Latin America was Cancun, in Mexico, which ranked 40th in the entire ranking with 6,041,000 international visitor arrivals in 2018, losing four positions compared to the previous report. According to Euromonitor, the number of tourists has been decreasing affecting the accommodation sector that has seen an increase in the rooms available in the market and a decrease in demand. Cancun is followed by Buenos Aires, in Argentina, with 85th place and 2,685,700 foreign visitors in 2018. Very close, at 89th place, was Lima, Peru, with 2,535,400 international tourist arrivals last year.

In the Middle East and Africa, Dubai achieved number seven based on its strong performance last year, with Euromonitor highlighting the availability of a free two-day transit visa and its various theme park offers.

These are the 20 most visited cities in the world, according to the number of arrivals of 2018 and estimates for 2019

1. Hong Kong: 29,262,700 arrivals (2018) / 26,716,800 arrivals (2019)

2. Bangkok, Thailand: 24,177,500 arrivals (2018) / 25,847,800 arrivals (2019)

3. London, England: 19,233,000 arrivals (2018) / 19,559,900 arrivals (2019)

4. Macao: 18,931,400 (2018) / 20,637,100 arrivals (2019)

5. Singapore: 18,551,200 arrivals (2018) / 19,760,800 arrivals (2019)

6. Paris, France: 17,560,200 arrivals (2018) / 19,087,900 arrivals (2019)

7. Dubai, United Arab Emirates: 15,920,700 arrivals (2018) / 16,328,300
arrivals (2019)

8. New York, USA: 13,600,000 arrivals (2018) / 14,010,000 arrivals
(2019)

9. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: 13,434,300 arrivals (2018) / 14,072,400 arrivals
(2019)

10. Istanbul, Turkey: 13,433,000 arrivals (2018) / 14,715,900 arrivals (2019)

11. Delhi, India: 12,645,300 arrivals (2018) / 15,196,500 arrivals (2019)

12. Antalya, Turkey: 12,438,800 arrivals (2018) / 13,332,100 arrivals (2019)

13. Shenzhen, China: 12,202,100 arrivals (2018) / 12,324,100 arrivals (2019)

14. Mumbai, India: 10,590,100 arrivals (2018) / 12,442,400 arrivals (2019)

15. Phuket, Thailand: 10,550,700 arrivals (2018) / 10,965,200 arrivals (2019)

16. Rome, Italy: 10,065,400 arrivals (2018) / 10,317,000 arrivals (2019)

17. Tokyo, Japan : 9,985,100 arrivals (2018) / 10,443,100 arrivals (2019)

18. Pattaya, Thailand : 9,606,400 arrivals (2018) / 9,951,900 arrivals (2019)

19. Taipei, Taiwan: 9,597,800 arrivals (2018) / 9,981,700 arrivals (2019)

20. Mecca, Saudi Arabia: 9,565,200 arrivals (2018) / 9,833,000 arrivals (2019)

Most visited cities