Each year, the UN Tourism collects data on the international tourist arrivals for every country in the world. The most visited countries for the past year included six from Europe, two from North America, and two from Asia (see map and list below).
Most visited countries
The Most Visited Countries
1. France (76.8 million visitors)
2. United States (59.7 million visitors)
3. China (55.7 million visitors)
4. Spain (52.7 million visitors)
5. Italy (43.6 million visitors)
6. United Kingdom (28.1 million visitors)
7. Turkey (27 million visitors)
8. Germany (26.9 million visitors)
9. Malaysia (24.6 million visitors)
10. Mexico (22.4 million visitors)
China made the biggest jump, passing Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom to reach third on the list. Another Asian country, Malaysia, is a surprising entry in the top ten most popular countries to visit. A past visit to Kuala Lumpur leads me to believe this is largely driven by business travelers to the capital city. The rest of the list—especially France, Spain, Italy, and the United States—has been a mainstay for many years.
Another important note is that global tourism arrivals went up this past year, after dropping the year before. This marked the first drop in overall tourism in two decades.
(Data was collected in 2009)
Minor updates and edits were made from the original article.
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Gennaro Salamone is the founder and editor of Enduring Wanderlust. Please contact him with questions, comments or inquiries regarding article or photograph submissions.