Athens climbed from 50th to 32nd place, gaining 18 spots in the Euromonitor’s World’s Top 100 Cities for 2024 rankings.
According to Euromonitor International, the City of Light, as Paris is known, was the undisputed leader of 2024, experiencing a significant surge in tourism while hosting major sporting events, culminating in the Summer Olympic Games.
Euromonitor ranks cities around the world using 55 metrics across six key factors, which are economic and business performance; tourism performance; tourism infrastructure; tourism policy and attractiveness; health and safety; and sustainability.
Madrid took second place, followed by Tokyo in third and Rome in fourth, with Milan rounding out the top five.
Despite clinching the top spot in the rankings, the French capital did not record the highest tourist traffic during the year. Based on the data, Bangkok topped the list, with approximately 32 million visitors traveling to the Thai capital in 2024.
Rounding out the top five cities with the most tourism are Istanbul, London, Hong Kong, and Mecca.
Notably, London fell out of the top 10 for Euromonitor’s World’s Top 100 Cities for the first time in years, landing in 13th place, while New York climbed from 8th to 6th. Dubai experienced a sharp drop, sliding 12 spots in a single year, and Vienna dropped out of the top 20 altogether.