According to the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index 2019, Palma and Barcelona are once more the only Spanish cities in the top twenty of the world's most visited.
Barcelona, with nine million visitors, has climbed one place to seventeenth compared with last year's index, while Palma has fallen two places to nineteenth (8.9 million visitors).
For the fourth consecutive year, Bangkok with 22 million tourists, was top of the global list, followed by Paris and London, both with over 19 million.
Other Spanish cities outside the top twenty included Madrid with 5.9 million visitors (32nd) and Santa Cruz in Tenerife with 4.8 million (43rd).
For European cities only, Palma was seventh and Barcelona sixth.
With regard to 2019, the index anticipates that Palma will register a 4.4% increase in the number of visitors and Barcelona 4.8%.
The two European cities forecast to grow the most - both by 8.1% - are Antalya and Istanbul.
As for spending, Palma was third in the European listing with 11,453 million euros, Santa Cruz fourth and Barcelona sixth. Dubai topped the global list 27,810 million euros.
The Mastercard methodology counts a visitor if a person stays overnight at least once in a city.