Taipei World's 15th Best Urban Travel Destination in 2014: MasterCard

Among the world's 132 popular urban travel destinations, Taipei ranks No. 15 in 2014, advancing three positions from 2013's No. 18, according to the Top Global Destination Cities Index 2014 published recently by MasterCard Worldwide.

Over the last five years Taipei recorded a sizable compound average growth rate of 18% in spending by international tourists in the city and the percentage is the highest of the world's top 20 urban travel destinations, with Taipei's  international tourist arrival growth reaching 16%, the fourth highest.

MasterCard predicts the number of international tourists visiting Taipei may increase from 5.8 million in 2012 to 6.29 million this year. In Asia, Taipei is ranked the sixth best city for traveling, next to Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Seoul.

Last year Bangkok led in the number of tourist arrivals, but has lost nearly two million arrivals this year due to the recent political strife, placing London as the world's top urban travel destination.

Based on FBI data, the American website Lifestyle9 places Taiwan as the world's second safest place for residence in 2014, next only to Japan, with the factors influencing safety being  crime rate, natural disaster, corruption, economic crisis etc. Taiwan's crime rate varies from a low of 16.26 and safety rate to a  a high of 83.74.

Safety undoubtedly is a key attraction to international tourists particularly when major natural disasters as the volcanic eruption in the Philippines, jihadist terrorism, plane crashes, and mass murders stateside  continue to haunt public minds in recent years. (JL)