Rome was the world's 12th
most-visited city in 2016, one of four Italian cities in
Euromonitor's top 100 city destinations ranking presented on
Tuesday at the World Travel Market event in London.
Italy's most-visited cities also included Milan in 27th
position, followed by Venice in 38th and Florence in 44th,
according to the ranking drafted by the leading market research
provider.
Hong Kong conquered the top spot with 26.5 million visitors
in 2016, followed by Bangkok and London.
Although no Italian city won one of the top 10 spots and Rome
received less than half of London's international arrivals,
Italy was the European country with the highest number of cities
in the ranking.
The other top 10 most-visited city destinations included
Singapore in fourth position, followed by Macau, Dubai, Paris,
New York, Shenzhen and Kuala Lumpur.
London was the European city most visited by international
tourists with 19.8 million arrivals last year, the only British
city among the 100 top destinations.
Spain's Barcelona, which ranked 23rd and Madrid 39th,
attracted a little over 12 million visitors.
In France, Paris and Nice (in 93rd position) attracted 16
million international visitors.
Wouter Geerts, a travel analyst with Euromonitor
International, said that "terror attacks in the Middle East and
North Africa, in particular in Tunisia and Egypt, as well as in
European cities like Paris and Barcelona, have favored the
rising number of arrivals in destinations with similar offers,
like Greece and Italy".
According to Euromonitor, tourism in Italy will continue to
rise with a total of over 60 million international arrivals
expected by 2022.
International visitors in Rome are expected to exceed 10
million by 2020, Euromonitor said.
"Italy is one of the most-visited countries in the world by
international tourists", said Geerts.
"The number of arrivals in Italian cities is constantly
rising as they offer a unique mix of art, wine and food,
culture, nature and architecture that attracts tourists from
around the world".
"However, the success of a destination also depends on other
factors like infrastructures, economic appeal, new technologies
and security", he said.
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