Kuala Lumpur ranked 8th chosen destination by MasterCard

Amongst countries in Asia, Kuala Lumpur came in third, outranking developed cities such as Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo, Taipei, Beijing and Guangzhou. Kuala Lumpur is expected to welcome a total of 9.2 million international overnight visitors in 2013, which is an increase of approximately 12% compared to 8.1 million visitors received in 2012.

The MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index also revealed Kuala Lumpur’s five most important feeder cities: Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Melbourne and Manila.

“It is encouraging to see Kuala Lumpur steadily moving up the ranks within the Asia/Pacific region. Malaysia’s position as a top travel destination in Asia has been recognized in other international and independently conducted surveys.”

“The findings from the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index further strengthen Malaysia’s reputation and hopefully we will continue to progress by leaps and bounds leading up to the Visit Malaysia Year 2014,” said Jim Cheah, vice president & senior country manager, Malaysia & Brunei, MasterCard Worldwide.

Of the 20 highest-ranked Destination Cities for 2013, four of the top five are MasterCard Priceless Cities: London, Paris, Singapore, and New York with Los Angeles coming in at 20.

The MasterCard Index of Global Destination Cities ranks cities in terms of the number of their total international visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors in the destination cities, and gives visitor and passenger growth forecasts for 2013.