We’re mere weeks away from a brand new year, so it’s the perfect time to start looking back on 2025. It’s not just Spotify who keeps track of what we’ve all been up to; market research company Euromonitor International has done some number crunching of its own to reveal the biggest travel trends of the past 12 months.
Every year, Euromonitor creates a list of the 100 best cities in the world, based on criteria including tourism infrastructure, sustainability and economic growth. It also released information on the busiest cities for international arrivals in 2025, highlighting the spots that people have been flocking to in their droves this year.
Asian cities made up three of the top five most visited places in 2025, with Bangkok coming out on top. This year some 30.3 million people flew into the Thai capital, which was also first in tourism policy and ‘attractiveness’. Despite that, it didn’t make it into the top 10 in the overall ranking.
The city has long been popular with backpackers and is seeing a growing number of visitors drawn to its nightlife, excellent restaurants and booming hotel scene. It’s also home to one of the world’s coolest streets this year in Cahroen Nakhon Road, while the ‘White Lotus effect’ has undoubtedly attracted more visitors to Thailand this year.
In second place was another bustling east Asian metropolis – Hong Kong saw roughly 23.3 million overseas visitors in the past 12 months. That’s just under three times its entire population. It came 17th in the overall best cities ranking, just above London at 18th.
The UK capital was also trailing Hong Kong in visitor numbers. An estimated 22.7 million people flew into London, making it the most popular city in Europe this year. Paris, which topped the overall chart, was 9th in terms of arrivals.
The top 10 most visited cities in 2025
These are the places that the most people travelled to from abroad this year, including how many international arrivals they had, according to Euromonitor International:
- Bangkok, Thailand – 30.3 million
- Hong Kong – 23.2 million
- London, United Kingdom – 22.7 million
- Macao, China – 20.4 million
- Istanbul, Turkey – 19.7 million
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates – 19.5 million
- Mecca, Saudi Arabia – 18.7 million
- Antalya, Turkey – 18.6 million
- Paris, France – 18.3 million
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 17.3 million
Did you see that the world’s best tourism villages to visit in 2026 have been named?
Plus: This is now officially the world’s largest city, overtaking Tokyo.
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