Which city destinations are growing fastest? We compared each city’s latest official international-visitor figure with the previous year’s, using the growth rate the statistical source itself reports wherever available. The result: the strongest growth is not in Europe’s capitals but in Asia’s second-tier destinations — Da Nang (+36%), Guangzhou (+33%) and Tokyo (+27%) — while the world’s most visited city, Bangkok, actually shrank in 2025.
Year-on-year growth in international visitors
The data
| City | YoY | Latest | Previous | Metric | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Da Nang | +36.3% | 4.1 M (2024) | 3.0 M (2023) | international arrivals | Da Nang Department of Tourism |
| Guangzhou | +32.8% | 5.01 M (2024) | 3.77 M (2023) | inbound overnight visitors (incl. HK/Macao/Taiwan) | Guangzhou Statistical Communiqué 2024 |
| Tokyo | +26.9% | 24.79 M (2024) | 19.53 M (2023) | foreign travelers | Tokyo Metropolitan Government tourism statistics |
| Mecca | +24.8% | 16.92 M (2024) | 13.56 M (2023) | foreign Umrah pilgrims | GASTAT / Pilgrims Experience Program Annual Report |
| Ha Long (Quang Ninh) | +20.0% | 3.5 M (2024) | 2.9 M (2023) | international visitors, province | Quang Ninh Department of Tourism |
| Dubai | +5.0% | 19.59 M (2025) | 18.72 M (2024) | international overnight visitors | Dubai DET |
| Paris (Île-de-France) | +3.0% | 22.6 M (2024) | 21.9 M (2023) | international tourists, region | Choose Paris Region / CRT |
| London | +3.0% | 20.9 M (2024) | 20.3 M (2023) | inbound overseas visits | VisitBritain / ONS IPS |
| Chennai | +0.2% | 0.79 M (2024) | 0.79 M (2023) | FTAs via Chennai airport | Ministry of Tourism, India |
| Bangkok | -6.5% | 30.3 M (2025) | 32.4 M (2024) | international arrivals (city) | Euromonitor via press; Thailand-wide −7.2% (MOTS) |
Download: fastest_growing_2026.csv — full dataset with metrics, sources and growth-calculation notes.
What stands out
- Vietnam is the growth story of the year. Da Nang (+36.3%) and Quang Ninh province around Ha Long Bay (+20%) both set records in 2024, powered by new flight routes and post-pandemic capacity.
- China’s reopening shows up in Guangzhou: inbound overnight visitors +32.8% in 2024 — and the foreigner segment alone grew 55.6%, helped by China’s expanding visa-free entry policies.
- Tokyo rode Japan’s record year: +26.9% to 24.79 million foreign travelers, in a year when Japan as a whole welcomed a record 36.8 million.
- Mecca’s religious travel keeps climbing: foreign Umrah pilgrims rose from 13.56 to 16.92 million (+24.8%), reflecting Saudi Arabia’s push to expand pilgrimage capacity.
- The mature giants grow slowly — or shrink. London and Paris grew ~3% (Paris despite its Olympic year), Dubai +5% off an already record base, while Bangkok’s arrivals fell about 6.5% in 2025 in line with Thailand’s country-wide decline (−7.2%).
Methodology
Growth rates are taken directly from the official source where it states one; otherwise we compute them from the two published annual totals (marked in the CSV). Reference years differ by city — Dubai and Bangkok already report 2025, the others 2024 — and metrics differ as documented per row; this story compares each city’s growth on its own official metric, not absolute volumes across cities. For absolute numbers see The World’s Most Visited Cities; per-city sourcing sits in each city’s Key Facts module and on About TN Cities & Methodology. Related: Tourists per Resident.
More TN Cities data stories
- Tourists per Resident — which cities carry the most tourism pressure.
- The Most Visited Cities Nobody Writes About — Johor, Zhuhai, Batam & Muğla — travel’s invisible giants.
- Asia vs. Europe: City Tourism Since 2019 — who passed pre-pandemic levels, and who did not.
- Religious Travel Giants — Mecca, Medina, Karbala and the Kumbh in numbers.
- The World’s Most Visited Cities — the master table: official arrivals per city with metric, year and source.
Changelog
- 2026-09-01: First edition, 10-city cohort.