Bucharest ranks 81st among the 132 most visited cities worldwide; London ranks first

Romania's capital city ranks 81st among the 132 most visited cities worldwide and it also climbed one step up to the 28th position among the most visited European cities, according to a survey made public on Wednesday.

"Bucharest ranks 81st in the GDCI 2015 and 28th in Europe, one step up from last year," reveals the MasterCard Global Destinations Cities Index (GDCI).

According to the survey, the capital city will host 1.02 million international visitors this year, up 5.2 pct from last year. The visitors are expected to spend around 287 million US dollars during their time in Romania, by 2.4 pct more than last year. An average visitor spent 281 US dollars in Bucharest last year.

London continues to top the ranking, for the fifth time in seven years, according to the MasterCard survey. According to estimates, as many as 18,82 people will visit London this year, by a little more than second-ranked Bangkok.

The MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index MasterCard's Global Destination Cities Index provides an annual ranking of 132 of the most important destination cities in the world. It generates estimates of the total number of international visitors to each of these cities each year, their cross-border spending in these cities, and breakdown of their numbers by feeder cities. The index is therefore a global map of how these 132 cities are connected and the business potential generated in each of them by the inflows of visitor spending. A special attention is paid to the elimination of the hub effects for such destination cities as Singapore, Dubai, Amsterdam and Frankfurt. AGERPRES