Hanoi ranks in top 10 fastest growing tourism cities

The 2017 Global Destinations Cities Index produced by credit card company Mastercard said foreign arrivals in the city grew at 16.4 percent between 2009 and 2016, the fastest after Osaka, Chengdu, Colombo, Abu Dhabi, Jakarta and Tokyo.

Tourists stand on "The Huc" Bridge, which leads to Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi

Jakarta’s and Hanoi’s entry into the top 10 point to Southeast Asia’s rising significance as a key travel hub, the report said.

In the previous edition, which measured arrivals growth between 2009 and 2015, Hanoi ranked 13th, while the Indonesian capital came in at 11th.

The survey, which ranked 132 cities, found the Asia-Pacific leading global tourism by dominating in terms of visitor arrivals and revenues, raking in 91.16 billion USD in 2016, compared to 74.74 billion USD for Europe and 55.02 billion USD for North America.

Hanoi was named the cheapest travel destination by TripAdvisor travellers between 2014 and 2016. The travel site estimated last year that a three-night holiday for two in Hanoi cost only 494 USD, a quarter of the New York cost, the most expensive travel destination in the ranking.

International arrivals in Hanoi topped 3.5 million in the first nine months of this year, up 24 percent from a year ago, according to the city’s statistics office.

VNA