Chengdu in Sichuan province has recorded significant increase in the number of international tourists visiting the city over the past seven years, becoming the second fastest-growing tourist destination in the world, with a cumulative annual international visitor growth rate of 20.7 percent.

The MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index released on June 30 shows that the number of overseas visitors to Chengdu has nearly tripled during the period between 2009 and 2015.

In 2009, about 480,000 foreign tourists as well as those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan visited the city of Chengdu. This year, the number is expected to reach 1.49 million.

The top-ranked city on the list, Sri Lanka’s Colombo was only marginally ahead of Chengdu, with, cumulative annual international visitor growth rate of 21.1 percent. Other two Chinese cities, namely Shaanxi’s Xi’an and Fujian’s Xiamen also ranked among the fastest growing destinations worldwide.