PERU: LatAm's Most Visited City For Third Year In A Row Is Lima

Lima has retained its position as Latin America's most visited city for third consecutive year, the 2016 Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index revealed.

As is known, the Inca nation capital has also been crowned top-ranked destination city in Latin America in 2015 and 2014 editions.

According to the Mastercard report, the city has recorded over 4 million tourists this year, a 1.7% increase compared to the previous year.

“Lima is the top-ranked destination city in Latin America with over four million international visitors. Mexico City follows in second rank with almost three million visitors. Punta Cana, Sao Paulo, and Buenos Aires come after that in third, fourth and fifth ranks respectively,” the Index underlined.

Likewise, Peru's capital is featured as the region's fastest-growing destination city, with Compound Annual Growth Rates (CAGR) of 9.9%, followed by Bogota (9.6%), Punta Cana (7.3%), Rio de Janeiro (6.5%) and Mexico City (6.2%)

As for purpose of visit, the study shows 76% of visitors arrived in the coastal capital on leisure trips, whereas the remaining 24% represents business travels.

Peak months of tourist inflow are May, July, August and October.

Lima’s top feeder city is Santiago, accounting for 661,000 visitors and US$164 million of spending), followed by Buenos Aires (375,000), Bogota (352,000), Miami (328,000), and Mexico City (305,000), whose visitors are the fastest-growing.

Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index (GDCI) ranks 132 cities by overall tourist spend, total overnight visitors, pace of growth, and volume within regions.

The Index charts also show the way these cities are connected through air travel.