The 2017 Global Destinations Cities Index produced by credit card company Mastercard said foreign arrivals in the city grew at 16.4 per cent between 2009 and 2016, the fastest after Osaka, Chengdu, Colombo, Abu Dhabi, Jakarta, and Tokyo.

Jakarta’s and Hà Nội’s entry into the top 10 point to Southeast Asia’s rising significance as a key travel hub, the report said.

In the previous edition, which measured arrivals growth between 2009 and 2015, Hà Nội ranked 13th, while the Indonesian capital came in at 11th.

The survey, which ranked 132 cities, found the Asia-Pacific leading global tourism by dominating in terms of visitor arrivals and revenues, raking in $91.16 billion in 2016, compared to $74.74 billion for Europe and $55.02 billion for North America.

Hà Nội was named the cheapest travel destination by TripAdvisor travellers between 2014 and 2016. The travel site estimated last year that a three-night holiday for two in Hà Nội cost only $494, a quarter of the New York cost, the most expensive travel destination in the ranking.

International arrivals in Hà Nội topped 3.5 million in the first nine months of this year, up 24 per cent from a year ago, according to the city’s statistics office.