This City Was the World's Most Visited in 2024
Bangkok is a hub for food, nightlife, and history, and it’s the perfect jumping-off point for additional travel throughout Thailand.
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Wat Arun Buddhist temple and Chao Phraya river on a sunny day in Bangkok, Thailand.Thailand is having a moment. Not only is it Travel + Leisure’s 2025 Destination of the Year and the filming location for season three of HBO’s The White Lotus, but it’s also home to the most visited city last year.
According to Euromonitor International’s World’s Top 100 City Destinations report, Bangkok, the country’s capital, attracted the most international visitors in 2024. A grand total of 32.4 million people made their way to this bustling city, and the data analytics company stated that this number “surpassed [the] pre-pandemic level of international tourism flows in 2023 and continued dynamic growth of over 30 percent in 2024.”
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If you’ve ever been to Bangkok, you’ll know that, while crowded in some areas, it’s a place filled with fascinating contrasts. One night, you can eat at a street food stall in Chinatown; the next, you can dine at a Michelin-starred restaurant (for a fraction of what you’d pay in America).
Exploring the temples around the Old Town or perusing the Thai antiques in the Erawan Museum should be on your to-do list, but you should also seek out the glamour and modern luxury of Bangkok’s best hotels—including the Capella Bangkok and the Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok at Chao Phraya River.
While Bangkok is a destination to experience in and of itself, it’s also a good starting point for checking out other parts of Thailand. Whether you’re headed to the islands in the south—namely the Phuket Province, Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Koh Phi Phi, or Koh Lipe—or up north to Chiang Mai, Pai, or Chiang Rai, you’ll want to spend at least a day or two soaking in the culture and history in Bangkok.
“In 2024, global cities increasingly leveraged sports and cultural events to boost tourism revenues. Infrastructure improvements and continuous marketing have attracted travellers' attention, opening further growth opportunities,” the report said.
While this rings true for Bangkok—which hosts the annual Songkran Festival in April—it’s also relevant to the other cities that made Euromonitor International’s list. Istanbul, the world’s most visited city in 2023, followed Bangkok with 23 million international visits in 2024. London; Hong Kong; and Mecca, Saudi Arabia, rounded out the top five, with Antalya, Turkey, and Dubai not far behind.
See the full list of the world’s most-visited cities on euromonitor.com.
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