10 Popular Destinations in the Asia-Pacific Region: Bali Loses to Kuala Lumpur

The Mastercard Asia Pacific Destinations Index (APDI) ranks Bali among the top ten most popular destinations in the Asia Pacific region. Furthermore, Bali's ranking improved from tenth in 2017 to ninth in 2018, with a total of 8.3 million overnight stays. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of visitors to Bali over the past nine years was 12.3%. The majority of tourists came from Mainland China (22.4%), Australia (19.3%), and India (5.8%).

However, the number of tourists visiting Bali was lower than that of its neighboring country, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur ranked third with 13.8 million overnight stays. Meanwhile, Bangkok secured the top spot with 22.8 million overnight stays, followed by Singapore with 14.7 million.

Mastercard, a global payments technology company, uses a methodology for the APDI that ranks 161 cities based on proprietary analysis of third-party information sources. These sources include the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the UNWTO, the United Nations (UN), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and national tourism boards.