The capital of Thailand, Bangkok, is the world's number one destination city for travel, according to MasterCard, edging out London by about 25,000 visitors last year.

This has been reported in the annual Global Destination Cities Index.

The study looked at the highest international visitor numbers in 2013, with Paris, Singapore and New York rounding out the top five, after Bangkok and London.

The Asia-Pacific region cemented its dominance in the report this year, and of the 132 cities ranked, 42 are Asian countries.

Within Asia, Bangkok is followed by Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo, while five of the top 10 in 2013 were in the Greater China region.

"With the rise of the Asia-Pacific region," said Ann Cairns, president of international markets for MasterCard Worldwide, "this year's index reflects the rebalance that the globe is undergoing in large part because of the rise of emerging markets."

The index ranks cities in terms of the number of their total international visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors in the destination cities.

Of the 20 highest-ranked Destination Cities for 2013, four of the top five are MasterCard “priceless cities”: London, Paris, Singapore and New York, with Los Angeles coming in at 20.

Not only are these cities attracting international visitor arrivals, they are top spots for their residents as well.

“Bangkok brought with it great momentum from last year,” said report author Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, global economic adviser for MasterCard.

"Its ascent to number one is not only a first for Asia, it is emblematic of the rise of the global south which encompasses much of Africa and Asia as well as South America. "