What Is the Most Visited City in the World?
One city sits near 22 million international trips. Most people guess Paris. Both guesses miss the volume leader.
London is the 22.7 million city. Bangkok is first on arrivals. Paris is first on a different score — how appealing the city is, not how crowded the arrivals hall is.
Ask the room. Someone says Paris. Someone says London. Someone who just flew through Suvarnabhumi says Bangkok and gets talked over.
Euromonitor’s 2025 city work splits the argument. On international trips, Bangkok is first at 30.3 million. Hong Kong 23.2. London 22.7 million — that is the “22 million” city in the subtitle. Paris is ninth on that arrivals list, at 18.3 million.
On Euromonitor’s attractiveness index — infrastructure, policy, safety, sustainability, business, not raw heads — Paris is first for a fifth year. Bangkok is twentieth on that scoreboard. Same company. Two rulers.
Bangkok takes the arrivals hall. Paris does not.
- 01Bangkok30.31st
- 02Hong Kong23.22nd
- 03London22.722M
- 04Macao20.44th
- 05Istanbul19.75th
- 06Dubai19.56th
- 07Mecca18.77th
- 08Antalya18.68th
- 09Paris18.3guess
- 10Kuala Lumpur17.310th
International trips, not domestic weekenders, not airport transfers counted as a holiday. Paris is highlighted because it is the usual wrong answer.
Paris wins the city people want. Not the city they flood.
Euromonitor’s attractiveness ranking is a blended score: economy, tourism performance, infrastructure, policy, health and safety, sustainability. Paris has held first for five years. Then Madrid, Tokyo, Rome, Milan. London sits way down that table — 18th in 2025 coverage of the index — even while 22.7 million people still land there.
That is the whole trick of the headline. “Most visited” sounds like “best.” It is a turnstile. “Most attractive” is a brochure. They parted company years ago.
Most international trips
Second year at the top of the arrivals list. 20th on attractiveness.
The “22 million” city
Third on arrivals. Not first. Not Paris.
Fifth year on that index
18.3 million trips. Ninth on the volume list.
International trips, 2025
About 46% of world international tourism, Euromonitor says. Up 8%.
Paris is what people picture. London is the 22 million. Bangkok is the queue.Macro Discovery reading of Euromonitor 2025
The wrong guess is a brand. The right count is a flight map.
Paris wins because the Eiffel Tower is a default noun. London wins a lot of business and study trips that never make a reel. Bangkok wins because the fare is short, the visa is easy, and the city is a hub for a whole peninsula. Macao and Mecca remind you that “visited” includes a casino weekend and a pilgrimage. Those are not interchangeable weekends.
If you add French domestic tourists, Paris looks bigger again. This table does not. Keep international trips on one page. Keep “best city” on another. The 22 million line is London. The most-visited line is Bangkok. The postcard is still Paris.
Editorial reading of Euromonitor International, Top 100 City Destinations Index 2025. Euromonitor did not write this box.If you remember two things
Bangkok 30.3 million. London 22.7. Paris 18.3.
Hong Kong second. The 22 million city in the subtitle is London, not the leader.
Paris is first on the other list
Five years running. That score is not a headcount. Do not merge the trophies.
Short answers
One firm, two scoreboards
- Volume: Euromonitor International, Top 100 City Destinations Index 2025 — international trips. Bangkok 30.3, Hong Kong 23.2, London 22.7, Macao 20.4, Istanbul 19.7, Dubai 19.5, Mecca 18.7, Antalya 18.6, Paris 18.3, Kuala Lumpur 17.3.
- Attractiveness: same report’s blended index. Paris 1st (fifth year), then Madrid, Tokyo, Rome, Milan.
- Bars: arrivals scaled to Bangkok 30.3 = 100%.
