London leading destination city in 2012

LONDON (Reuters): The home of this summer’s Olympic Games and the Diamond Jubilee celebrations for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth is also the world’s top destination this year, according to an index released by global credit card company MasterCard on Monday.

MasterCard’s ‘Worldwide Index of Global Destination Cities’ predicted that London will see 16.9 million people arrive by air compared with a million less for second place city Paris and airmiles ahead of New York at 13th place with 7.6 million arrivals.

The index also said that London, for the second year running, will attract the highest international visitor spend at $21.1 million, just ahead of New York at $19.4 million.

“London offers better value for money than New York,” MasterCard Worldwide’s global economic advisor Yuwa Hedrick-Wong told Reuters.

The Queen’s diamond jubilee saw London fill with visitors from abroad and around Britain for four days of celebrations at the start of June and the Olympics which will take place at venues in and around London from July 27 to August 12 is expected to pull in visitors from all over the planet.