London edges out Bangkok as most popular tourist city for 2015

For the second year in a row and the fifth time in seven years, London has been named the most popular travel destination in the world, according to the recently released results of MasterCard's annual survey.

The company estimates that the city will have 18.82 million overnight visitors in 2015. Those visitors could translate to more than $20 billion in tourism-related revenue alone.

Bangkok, which claimed the top spot in 2013, is the runner-up again this year with a projected 18.24 million overnight visitors.

A MasterCard executive attributes the continuing popularity of the two cities to their abundant cultural sites, minimal language barriers and high navigability.

Paris ranked third, while Dubai and Istanbul rounded out the top five.

The only U.S. city to make the list was New York, which came in at number six with an anticipated 12.27 million visitors.

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