Johannesburg Africa’s most visited city 2013

Johannesburg has ranked third overall in the top 10 destination cities in international visitor arrivals in the Middle East and Africa region and ranked as the top destination in Africa. The Middle East and Africa’s top five destination cities by international overnights visitors are Dubai (9.9 million), Riyadh (5.0 million), Johannesburg (2.5 million), Amman (2.4 million) and Lagos (2.2 million). It ranked fourth in the Middle East and Africa Top five Destination Cities by International Overnight Visitor Spend, and the top destination in Africa with visitor cross-border spending forecast at $2.7 billion, with a growth of 3.4%. Top five destination cities in terms of cross-border visitors spend are: Dubai ($10.4 bil), Riyadh ($3.4 bil), Beirut (2.8 bil), Johannesburg ($2.7 bil) and Amman ($2.0 bil). The MasterCard Index of Global Destination Cities ranks cities in terms of the number of their total international visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors in the destination cities, and gives visitor and passenger growth forecasts for 2013. This Index and the accompanying reports are not based on MasterCard volumes or transactional data.