Shanghai top Chinese mainland destination city: Mastercard

A group of international visitors rest on a rooftop at the Bund, Shanghai, July 30, 2012. [Photo/VCG]

Shanghai is the top-ranked destination city in the Chinese mainland according to international overnight visitor arrivals, the latest annual Mastercard Global Destinations Cities Index says.

It came 17th in a list of 132 most visited cities around the world included in the study, with 6.38 million international overnight visitors, earning $5.3 billion of tourism income in 2016.

The report says Shanghai is getting more popular around the globe and has shown strong growth compared to the 2015 figure of 6.08 million international overnight visitors. Shanghai is expected to see a growth in 2017 of 3.2 percent.

The index shows Shanghai stands out in terms of purpose of travel among the top 20 cities. While most people traveled to other cities for leisure activities such as dining, lodging and shopping, up to 48.4 percent of those traveling to other cities, went to Shanghai for business, the highest ratio among all top 20 cities.

While 48.4 percent people traveled internationally to Shanghai for business in 2016, 51.6 percent of international visitors went to Shanghai for leisure. Mastercard also suggests traveling to Shanghai in April, May, August and October are the best seasons to see the city.

Bangkok was the top-ranked destination in 2016 receiving 21.47 million international overnight visitors, followed by London's 19.88 million and Paris' 18.03 million visitors.