Release of the Report on World Tourism City Development (2019) Provides Intellectual Support for Development of World Tourism Cities

On September 3rd, the Report on World Tourism City Development (2019) was officially released at World Tourism Cities Federation Helsinki Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit, publishing the comprehensive ranking of the development of world tourism cities and the top 20 cities in six individual indices in 2019. The top ten cities in the comprehensive ranking are: New York, Tokyo, London, Paris, Beijing, Dubai, Hongkong, Seoul, Shanghai and Barcelona. In six individual indices, London ranks first in terms of city popularity, New York ranks first in terms of industrial prosperity. Barcelona, Tokyo, Bangkok and Paris rank high in terms of their technological maturation, tourism convenience, economic contribution, and overall satisfaction.

The Report on World Tourism City Development (2019) is an important academic research achievement for the World Tourism Cites Federation (WTCF). As an annual research report on world tourism cities’ development, its evaluation, research, and rankings of popular destinations mainly aim to promote cooperation and exchange among these cities and comprehensively improve the importance of their role in the development of the sector by means of summing up the positive feedback of world travelers,. The report selected 100 cities as sample, among which 62 are member cities of WTCF and 38 non-members cites, covering 70 countries and regions in the world.

The report is based on Euromonitor's data that was released in 2018, and it also incorporates the publicly released data and rankings from tourism organizations and media, such as European City Marketing, Economist Intelligence Unit, TripAdviser, MasterCard, NenBio, Sen Foundation, ATKearney and the Guardian, as well as international organizations such as the United Nations World Tourism Organization, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations World Health Organization, the International Congress & Convention Association, the World Civil Aviation Organization, and the World Hotel Association, which reflects the comprehensiveness, representativeness and authority of the rankings.

The report analyzes the development status and confronts challenges encountered in these cities from six aspects: city popularity, industrial prosperity, technological advancement, traveler convenience, economic contribution, and tourism satisfaction, providing decision-making references and intellectual support for further development.

It is worth noting that China has the largest number of cities listed in the top 20 cities in terms of economic contribution, with five cities: Macau, Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. In the ranking of transportation convenience, Tokyo, Madrid, Vienna, London and Amsterdam rank as the top five. Hong Kong China and Shanghai rank 10th and 18th respectively. China and the United States have the largest number of cities in the ranking with four cities each. Barcelona, Hong Kong, Rotterdam, Frankfurt and Madrid are in the top five.