Hanoi, HCMC among top 10 Asia-Pacific business destinations

The southern metropolis received 1.2 million international business arrivals and Hanoi more than 1.2 million last year, compared to 900,000 for HCMC and one million for Hanoi in 2016, according to a recent report compiled by MasterCard.

Last year saw 49.4 million business travelers, 14.8 percent of all overnight travelers, visiting Asia Pacific destinations. They stayed a total of 235 million nights and spent $41.4 billion.

Their spending last year in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital, was $385 million, and HCMC, the nation’s biggest city, $661 million.

MasterCard ranks 160 destinations out of 23 markets in the Asia-Pacific and gets the data primarily from national tourism boards in each market.

Shanghai topped the ranking, followed by Tokyo and Singapore.

Of all international arrivals, HCMC ranked 17th in the Asia-Pacific with 4.6 million visitors in 2017 and Hanoi ranked 20th with 3.7 million visitors. Thailand's Bangkok topped the list, drawing 20.1 million foreign arrivals last year.

In August, Hanoi and HCMC made it to the top 15 destinations in Asia in a ranking by the U.S. News. The ranking considered local prices, accessibility and the variety of attractions in each destination along with travelers’ feedback, and put Hanoi in 14th place followed by HCMC.

Local photographers capture the vibrant changes around the Ho Guom (Sword Lake) in Hanoi downtown. Photo by VnExpress

In the Economist Intelligence Unit's recent ranking of the world’s most livable cities, Hanoi and HCMC were among the top five improvers.

Earlier this year Vietnam’s two biggest cities were named among the 10 cheapest cities in Southeast Asia. HCMC and Hanoi were ninth and seventh respectively on the Cost of Living Index 2018 compiled by Numbeo, the world’s largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide..