Yes it is true, Lagos and Johannesburg have the highest number of visitors in Africa with over 4.6 million expected visitors in 2013. This is according to MasterCard’s recently released third annual Global Destination Cities Index, which is reached using the criteria of the number of total international visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by visitors in the destination cities.
Johannesburg tops the rankings with the highest number of international and local visitors totaling 2,544,013 and generating the sum of $2.7 billion with Lagos dubbed as an emerging city, following in a close second with 2,164,897 visitors which will generate about $922 million, the report showed. Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, has witnessed considerable growth in the past year following 20% declines in 2010 and 2011, before shooting up by around 6.9 per cent growth in 2012.
Other African cities included in the rankings are; Cape Town, Durban, Nairobi, Cairo, Casablanca, Accra, Beira, Kampala, Maputo, Tunis and Dakar, were rated on the Index.
Globally, the top 5 global destination cities are Bangkok, London, Paris, Singapore and finally New York.