TOP TOURIST DESTINATIONS

Where is the world travelling and why? Strategy researchers Euromonitor International revealed in early 2014 their Top 100 City Destinations Ranking. If you like to go off the beaten track then this list might not be for you. If, on the other hand, you like to follow the crowd and find out what the fuss is about then read on to find out what travel card currency you might be carrying on your next trip.

There is a recurring theme to the top three cities – Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok. All three are in the Far East, all are beautiful cities with much to offer visitors in their own right and all are important stopover hubs for travel between Asia, Oceania and other continents.
Asian cities also occupy 5^th, 6^th and 7^th spots. Number five is Macau with Kuala Lumpur behind it and then the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Shenzhen seems like an unusual name to pop up here, rather than China’s capital Beijing or its financial centre Shanghai, but the city does nonetheless boast a thriving economy and a wide range of tourist attractions. While many of these attractions won’t be particularly well known to western tourist markets, they will be popular with the domestic market which is fuelled by a large population.

It’s London that takes the fourth spot in the ranking – the statistics are based on 2012 arrivals, so the Olympic Games of that year will have helped but the growth from 2011 to 2012 was not huge suggesting that the UK capital has always had a strong appeal.

Think of London and you often think of New York and Paris at the same time. Well, they squeeze into the top 10 with the American city in 8^th place and the French capital at 10^th. Both however saw stronger growth than London between 2011 and 2012.

Number 9 for arrivals incidentally is Antalya in Turkey. Antalya is a gateway to the Turkish Riviera and the country’s largest sea resort, which are hugely popular destinations for European visitors from both the west and east of the continent.

Caxton FX offers currency cards providing great value and easy, secure and hassle free spending abroad. The cards are available in both US Dollars and Euros, meaning that they can be readily used in many of the world’s top tourist destinations and within those at a huge variety of shops, bars restaurants and more.