The Global Destination Cities Index, put out by credit card company Mastercard, reported that more than 20 million people visited the Thai capital (and its Grand Palace, left) in 2017. It was the second straight year that Bangkok topped the list.

Coming a close second in the list was London, with just fewer than 20 million. Paris, with 17.4 million visitors, was third. In fourth, fifth, and sixth places were Dubai (15.79 million), Singapore (13.91 million), and New York (13.13 million).

London topped the list in 2014 and 2015 and was second in 2017. Bangkok was first on the list last year and second in the years that London topped the list.

In terms of countries visited, Europe had six of the top 10. France was first, Spain was second, Italy was fifth, the U.K. was seventh, Turkey was eight, and Germany was ninth; in all, Europe claimed 51 percent of all overseas visitors in 2017.

Entering the top 20 for the first time were Antalya (Turkey), Mecca, Palma de Mallorca, Pattaya (Thailand), and Phuket (Thailand). Leaving the top 20 were Amsterdam, Rome, Shanghai, and Vienna.

The total number of overseas trips in a record 1.32 billion in 2017, according to statistics from the the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. The record figure was an increase of 7 percent over the year before; that increase was the largest since 2010, the UNWTO said.