Asia is home to more than half of this summer’s top 15 emerging travel destinations, according to a report released Monday by the Mastercard Economics Institute.
Tokyo and Osaka topped the list, which compared summer flight bookings for 2024 and 2025 to find the places experiencing the most growth in travelers.
The ranking shows continued interest in Tokyo, which ranked No. 2 on last year’s list.
Paris is No. 3 on the list, reflecting a drop in travelers during the summer of 2024 caused by the Summer Olympic Games, followed by Shanghai at No. 4.
Beijing, Seoul and Singapore round out the top 10 list — alongside two cities in Spain, Palma de Mallorca and Madrid, and Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro — with two lesser-known spots in Asia, Vietnam’s Nha Trang and Japan’s Fukuoka named 11th and 13th, respectively.
The report showed that interest in visiting Asian cities is mainly driven by Asian, European and American travelers.
Asia also tops the summer trip list for Middle Eastern travelers, though rising interest is for vacationing in Thailand — not Japan. Summer flight bookings from Middle Eastern travelers that increased the most were for Bangkok, followed by New York, then Phuket, the report showed.
Exchange rates matter — to some
Tokyo was the most visited city in the world in 2024, as value-seeking travelers were attracted by the depreciating Japanese yen, which hit its weakest level against the U.S. dollar since 1986 last year.
The yen’s depreciation has partially reversed — the currency reached 147.98 Tuesday relative to the greenback — but it is likely still a significant factor drawing visitors, according to the Mastercard Economics Institute report.
Currency fluctuations matter more to Asian travelers than others, it showed.
The report showed a 1% depreciation of the yen drove a 1.5% increase in visits from mainland China, compared with a 0.2% increase from the Germany, France and New Zealand.
Similarly, a 1% drop in the U.S. dollar resulted in more visits to the U.S. from Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and India, the report showed.
British travelers, however, are largely impervious to currency fluctuations. Their travel patterns remained steady despite currency drops in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland and the United States, the report showed.
“MEI’s analysis reveals a trend: travelers from Asia tend to be more sensitive to exchange rate shifts … [it’s] an element that features prominently in their outbound travel planning,” it stated.
Other travel shifts
The report also noted that economic and political factors have shifted travel preferences well ahead of the summer season.
More people are traveling to Saudi Arabia, specifically to Jeddah and Riyadh, spurred by the government’s economic diversification efforts and increased investments and business travel to the country, the report noted.
However, the United States is experiencing a decline in international visits, most notably among Canadians, it said.
A report published on April 23 from JPMorgan stated that foreign travel to the U.S. showed clear signs of weakening. International air arrivals dropped nearly 5% in February, despite expectations that the month would see a growth in foreign visitors, it stated.
In 2024, foreign spending in the United States reached $215 billion, or about 0.7% of the country’s gross domestic product, according to JPMorgan’s estimates. A 10% drop in foreign travelers would therefore have less than 0.1% effect on gross domestic product growth, it said.
“Still, a downturn could be felt materially in the tourism sector and educational sectors: foreigners accounted for 6% of tourism demand in 2023, and over 10% for hotels and restaurants, and they also make up 6% of higher education enrollment.”
In this scenario, weakness in the U.S. dollar could draw more to visit, according to the JPMorgan report.
That may be especially true among Asian tourists, who accounted for 40% of foreign travel spending in the United States in 2023, it said.