Asia-Pacific's most popular destinations

MasterCard has recently released its second Asia Pacific Destinations Index, an in-depth look at tourism trends within the region, ranking 179 cities and islands according to the total number of international overnight arrivals, where they come from and how much they spend.

Winner by a country mile is Bangkok, which recorded 19.3 million international arrivals who spent at least one night in the city in 2016. The Thai capital was followed by Singapore with 14.1 million and Tokyo, with 12.6 million. The first resort destination on the list is Phuket, in sixth place with 9.1 million international arrivals.

One in every six travellers visiting south-east Asia is now Chinese. Only one in every 25 is Australian, although the number of Australians visiting south-east Asia over the past seven years has increased from 8.3 million to 13 million.

Sydney's 3.7 million visitors fall below the bar for inclusion in the list of most visited cities in the Asia-Pacific region but the city sits in 17th place on the table of top 20 cities in the world by income earned, expected to gross a respectable $US6.4 billion from its visitors in 2016. The figure for Melbourne is $US4.9 billion from its 2.7 million international visitors.

If you're looking to visit one of the popular cities at quieter times, the index has vital clues in its peak months for visiting data. In Bangkok the visitor tsunami hits in January and April, in London it's July and August while April, July and October are the months to avoid if you want a quiet visit to Tokyo, although quiet in Tokyo is a relative notion.