Sri Lanka's capital city Colombo has been placed on top of the list of fastest growing cities in the world, an annual travel study by the MasterCard stated.
Among the 10 fastest growing cities in the world -based on data gathered over the last six years-, seven are in Asia.
Colombo is first in growth with a staggering 21% surge, with Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan province, following in second.
Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, ranked third in terms of growth; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, placed fifth.
Houston is the fastest growing city in North America since 2009 and is the only city in the United States to register double-digit growth over that period.
MasterCard has just released its annual travel study, the Global Destination Cities Index, ranking 132 destination cities around the world in terms of total international overnight visitor arrivals and cross-border spending.
The MasterCard Index of Global Destination Cities ranks cities in terms of the number of their total international overnight visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors in the destination cities, and gives visitor and passenger growth forecasts for 2015.
Fastest growing tourist cities
1. Colombo, Sri Lanka 21.1%
2. Chengdu, China 20.7%
3. Abu Dhabi, UAE 20.4%
4. Osaka, Japan 19.8%
5. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 18.0%
6. Xi An, China 16.2%
7. Taipei, Taiwan 14.9%
8. Tokyo 14.6%
9. Lima, Peru 13.9%
10. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 12.9%
