Hong Kong, other Asian cities shut out of world’s top 10 tourist destinations amid tough travel restrictions
- Paris and other European cities dominate the list compiled by Euromonitor International, owing to their more relaxed travel policies
- Hong Kong ranked 49th in the Top 100 City Destinations Index 2021, falling eight spots from 2020. In 2019, it placed 26th
The Top 100 City Destinations Index 2021 tracks 54 different metrics across six key pillars to generate an overall attractiveness score. The pillars are tourism performance, economic and business performance, tourism policy and attractiveness, tourism infrastructure, health and safety and sustainability.
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The ranking was first launched in 2019, doing away with the research firm’s previous metric of solely measuring the number of visitor arrivals – an index which Hong Kong topped for a decade until 2018.
Paris, known as the city of love, came out on top, reclaiming the crown it held in 2019. Dubai slipped a notch to take second place, followed by Amsterdam in The Netherlands.
“Eight of the top 10 cities in the Top 100 City Destinations Index are European,” the report said. “Surprisingly, Asia lacks any representation. Tokyo is the highest-ranking Asian city, ranked 15th.”
The French capital got the highest ranking in terms of tourism performance and the second highest ranking for tourism policy and infrastructure globally.
