The number of international tourist arrivals to the selected European destinations increased in 2024 over the previous year, in most cases surpassing pre-pandemic levels. In 2024, Paris and the Île-de-France region recorded the highest figure among the selected destinations, with **** million inbound tourist arrivals. London and Istanbul followed in the ranking that year, with roughly ** million and **** million arrivals, respectively. What are the most visited countries by international tourists? Both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, France was the country with the highest number of inbound tourist arrivals worldwide. Meanwhile, the United States consistently ranks as the country with the highest international tourism receipts worldwide. How many tourists travel every year? In 2024, the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide exceeded *** billion, catching up with pre-pandemic levels. Breaking down the number of inbound tourist arrivals worldwide by region shows that Europe is the global leading destination for inbound tourism, with over *** million international tourist arrivals in 2024.

In 2024, London was the leading European city tourism destination based on the number of bed nights. That year, bed nights in the United Kingdom's capital reached almost ** million, nearly catching up with pre-pandemic levels. Paris and Istanbul followed in the ranking in 2024, with roughly ** million and **** million bed nights. What are the most visited countries in Europe? While the French capital came in second among leading European cities based on bed nights, France consistently tops the ranking of the European countries with the highest number of inbound tourist arrivals, ahead of Spain, Italy, and Turkey. Meanwhile, when looking at European countries with the highest tourism receipts, Spain recorded the highest figure both before and after the impact of COVID-19. How many international tourists visit Europe every year? In 2024, the number of international tourist arrivals in Europe totaled over *** million. This figure, which also exceeded pre-pandemic levels, made Europe the region with the highest number of international tourist arrivals worldwide that year.

According to a 2025 study, ***** and ***************** were the travel destinations that reported the highest change in the share of flight bookings from Europe between June and September 2025 over the previous year. *****, ********, and ******* followed in the ranking.

This statistic shows the number of international overnight visitors in the most popular European city destinations in 2016. London had the largest number of international overnight visitors in 2016 with 19.06 million.

In 2016, London had the second most international overnight visitors. In that same year, London ranked as the third leading city in terms of international visitor spending in the world. In 2016, some 858 thousand international overnight visitors to London came from New York, United States.

In 2024, London played a prominent role in supporting international tourism in the United Kingdom. That year, the UK's capital accounted for roughly ** percent of all inbound tourist arrivals in the country. Meanwhile, Paris and the Île-de-France region represented around ** percent of all international arrivals to France, whereas travelers to Barcelona made up almost ** percent of inbound tourist arrivals in Spain in 2024. What are the most visited European cities? When looking at the number of inbound tourist arrivals to leading travel destinations in Europe, Paris and Île-de-France, the region surrounding the French capital, recorded the highest figure in 2024, with nearly ** million arrivals. London and Istanbul, also among the leading city tourism destinations in Europe based on the number of bed nights, followed in the ranking that year, with around ** million and over ** million inbound tourist arrivals, respectively. What are the most visited European countries? Both before and after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, France, Spain, and Italy were the most visited European countries by international travelers. Meanwhile, Spain consistently ranks as the European country with the highest number of inbound tourism receipts.

Madrid was the most visited city destination in Spain in 2023, having welcomed nearly ** million overnight visitors. The Catalonian capital followed second in the ranking that year, with roughly *** million tourists spending at least one night in the destination. How did Madrid rank in tourist visits and accommodation? In 2022, Madrid attracted over 4.5 million domestic and 4.6 million international tourists for stays exceeding one day, despite experiencing a more than 10 percent decrease compared to 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Furthermore, the Spanish capital has consistently ranked among the top ten European cities with the highest number of nights spent by tourists in paid accommodation, securing the 8th position that year. Which regions attracted the most international tourists? Spain's international tourism rebounded strongly from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, surpassing 100 million visitors in 2022. Catalonia led as the most visited region, attracting over **** million international tourists. The United Kingdom played a pivotal role as the primary source of international tourists, contributing over ** million travelers, followed by France with around ** million visitors.

The British Museum was the most visited tourist attraction in London in 2024, welcoming roughly *** million visitors. The Natural History Museum in South Kensington and the Tate Modern followed in the ranking that year, with around *** million and *** million visits, respectively. Overall, while the combined attendance at the leading tourist attractions in London increased in 2024 over the previous year, the number of visits at most of the selected attractions remained below pre-pandemic levels. Museums in the UK The museum industry plays an important role in the United Kingdom’s cultural sector. In 2023, museums and galleries accounted for approximately ***** percent of the cultural sector's employment in the UK. Meanwhile, the number of museum enterprises in the United Kingdom experienced an annual increase in 2024, reaching nearly ***. London's contribution to tourism in the UK London is by far the most visited destination in the United Kingdom by international travelers, accounting for over **** of all international tourist arrivals in the UK in 2023. That year, the UK's capital also ranked as the leading city tourism destination in Europe based on the number of bed nights, ahead of Paris and Istanbul.

The number of international tourist arrivals in Europe grew in 2024 over the previous year across all the most visited destinations in the region. In 2024, France was the most visited country by inbound travelers in Europe. That year, France, which also topped the ranking of the countries with the highest number of international tourist arrivals worldwide, reported *** million international tourist arrivals, the highest figure recorded by the destination to date. Spain, Turkey, and Italy followed on the list in 2024. Europe is the most popular region for inbound tourism Europe is the region with the highest number of inbound tourism arrivals worldwide, with over *** million arrivals in 2024. Comparatively, there were almost *** million international tourist arrivals in Asia and the Pacific, the second-most visited global region by inbound travelers that year. When breaking down the number of inbound arrivals in Europe by sub-region, Southern and Mediterranean countries reported the highest figures, both before and after the impact of COVID-19. Travel & Tourism Development Index France and Spain, among the most popular travel destinations in Europe in terms of inbound arrivals, were also among the leading countries in the Travel & Tourism Development Index (TTDI). The TTDI index measures factors and policies that support a sustainable and resilient development of travel and tourism worldwide. In 2023, Spain ranked first with a TTDI score of ****, followed by France and Germany.

In 2015, Dubai was the city with the highest number of tourists staying at least one night per capita. That same year, international overnight visitor spending in Dubai reached 28.5 billion US dollars. The city, which is the largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, was also one of the most expensive holiday destinations in the world in 2018. In 2016, 14.87 million people visited Dubai from abroad.

Europe and Asia: top destinations

According to the source, most of the 20 tourist cities with the highest number of visitor arrivals per capita were Asian or European cities. After Dubai, Amsterdam and Prague were the second and third cities with the greatest number of tourists spending at least one night per capita. With respectively, 2.7 and 2.5 visitors per capita, the two European cities were followed by another one: London. Singapore, ranked fifth with 2.1 visitors per capita, was the first Asian city in the list. Thus, New-York the first North American city of this ranking was 17th. It appears that Europe remains one of the most popular tourist destinations. Asia was also a very attractive destinations for international visitors with Hong-Kong being the leading city destination in 2017.

Focus on tourism in Europe

Since the nineties, the number of international tourist arrivals in Europe keeps increasing. France is the European country with the largest number of international visitors’ arrivals, while Spain and Italy are also two of the leading tourist destinations on the continent. Travel and tourism have an important contribution to GDP in Europe, reaching 781.6 billion US dollar and 2018 and expected to attain 991.4 billion in 2028.

Younger audiences dominate TikTok, a social video app that is also used extensively by influencers and travel bloggers. In April 2023, Barcelona was the city in Europe with the most TikTok views, amassing over 106 billion views of videos tagged with the city's name. London was also extremely popular with TikTok users, totaling over 68.6 billion views in April 2023, making the UK capital one of the most danceable cities in Europe. Other popular European cities tagged on the app were Paris, Istanbul, and Madrid.

In 2023, approximately 22 million tourists arrived in different accommodation establishments in Czechia. The largest number of international tourists came from Germany at 2.3 million. The number of tourists visiting Czechia has increased over the years up until 2019. The numbers were much lower in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Czechia – the perfect destination for beer lovers One of Czechia’s attractions for tourists is its beer. Czechia has a long history of brewing beer and the beer industry is a big part of the country’s economy. The biggest beer festival in the world takes place in Czechia and lasts 17 days, during which visitors can taste more than 70 different brands of local beer. Czechia is also the leading country in the world when it comes to beer consumption – in 2023, a whopping 128 liters of beer were consumed per capita. European cities contribute to tourism boom Europe is the most popular destination for international tourism. City tourism plays a large role in this, thanks in part to the relative ease of travel for Europeans, with budget airlines offering cheaper flights for weekend getaways. Prague, the capital of Czechia, ranks among the most visited cities in Europe.

In 2024, total tourist arrivals amounted to around **** million, and *** million of these were visitors from abroad. Berlin is the German capital and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country, as well as among European cities in general. Tourist magnet Berlin’s residential population was around **** million people in 2023. Visitors could choose from a total of 724 travel accommodation establishments to stay at. Among these, the most represented were bed and breakfast locations, followed by hotels and vacation homes. The city recorded around **** million tourist overnight stays from abroad in 2024, which was an increase compared to the year before. In addition to a thriving accommodation industry and lots of famous history, Berlin offers a lot of opportunities to enjoy nature in or not far from the city. The German capital also houses one of the most famous attractions in Europe and the world - the Berlin Wall. Berlin booming Berlin is one of the three German city-states, alongside Hamburg and Bremen. This means that in addition to being metropolitan areas, all three also have federal state status. Germany has a total of 16 federal states. Berlin as the capital is recognizable all over the world for its still visible traces of both East and West German history.

Istanbul was the leading destination in Turkey based on the volume of international tourist arrivals in 2023 and 2024. Overall, inbound travelers in that city totaled over **** million in 2024, more than in the previous year. Antalya was the second-leading tourist destination, with around **** million inbound arrivals. Istanbul does not lose its popularity Istanbul has been an attractive destination with plenty of sights, including mosques, churches, museums, palaces, and the Bosphorus Strait, which connects two large continents, Europe and Asia. This city, which has hosted different civilizations and cultures for centuries, has welcomed millions of foreign and local visitors for years. The number of foreign tourist arrivals in the largest city in Turkey has increased since 2020, when it dropped due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In line with the high inflation in the country, accommodation prices in Istanbul have generally been increasing. As of October 2023, the average cost for an overnight stay in the city was *** euros. Domestic tourism is falling back Although international tourism in Turkey has been recovering from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its limitations, domestic tourism has fallen behind. Factors such as high inflation, price increases, and the soaring cost of living in the country have also affected local tourism. In 2023, the number of domestic trips was about ** percent less compared to the peak figures in 2018. In relation to this, the number of overnight stays of domestic travelers has been generally following a negative trend in the last few years. Local tourists recorded roughly *** million nights at accommodations in 2023, still below the pre-pandemic levels.

Rome is the most populous city in Italy. With 2.75 million inhabitants, the capital of the country put ahead Milan and Naples. Compared to the number of citizens in 2012, the resident population of Rome increased by over 140,000 individuals. Regional data Rome is located in the center of Italy in the Lazio region. Lazio is the second-largest region in terms of population size after Lombardy. In 2024, the region counts roughly 5.7 million inhabitants, whereas Lombardy has over ten million individuals. The third-largest region is Campania, with 5.6 million people. Naples, the major center of Campania, has around 910,000 inhabitants at the beginning of 2024. Nevertheless, this city was, back in the 19th century, one of the largest cities in Western Europe. Tourism in Rome The Eternal City is also the main tourist destination in Italy and was the eighth most-visited city in Europe. The largest groups of international visitors in Rome came from the United States of America, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Every year, more and more tourists also enjoy the best-known tourist attractions in Rome, like the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Palatine Hill, which together recorded almost ten million visitors in 2022.

This table contains 45 series, with data for years 2014 - 2014 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years). This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (1 item: Canada) Countries visited (15 items: United States; Mexico; United Kingdom; France; ...) Travel characteristics (3 items: Visits; Nights; Spending in country).

Overnight tourist arrivals in Dubrovnik, Croatia, increased at a fast pace throughout the 2010s, surpassing *** million in 2019. The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), however, brought a halt to this trend, reducing tourism in the city to just *********visitors in 2020 before figures began to increase again, standing at *** million visitors in 2023. These figures do not include the large number of excursionists and cruise passengers who typically enter the city during the peak season. Coping with Dubrovnik’s popularity For many years, the city of Dubrovnik has been a leading destination in the Mediterranean. As in many of Europe’s most prominent tourist cities, however, increasing visitor numbers led to problems with overtourism, to the point that UNESCO warned that Dubrovnik’s world heritage status was at risk. To cope with the limited capacity and resources, the city launched plans in 2017 to make tourism more sustainable, including limiting the number of cruise ships calling at the port and the number of visitors entering the city. Tourism across Croatia As in Dubrovnik, there was a growing number of international tourist arrivals throughout Croatia before the pandemic hit. The country has various coastal cities on the Adriatic Sea that are also popular tourist destinations. The Dalmatia region, where Dubrovnik is based, covers much of the coastline of Croatia and includes the city of Split. The Istrian peninsula in the north, where the city of Pula is based, is also popular. According to Croatia’s national tourist board, the capital Zagreb was the most visited city in Croatia.

Set of most popular destinations on routes made with a tourist vehicle in the city of Gijón, according to the data obtained in the LabCityCar project, focused on the time range between 15:00 and 19:00. This time range has been selected as one of those who have offered an average of sufficient daily routes. The set of users who have been generating data is variable and limited, between several tens and a hundred concurrent vehicles. The published data includes aggregated destination point information from the start of LabCityCar (March 2013) to the present, filtering out those points where there has been a minimum number of routes. Other datasets related to LabCityCar are also available: LabCityCar — Historic of most popular route origins. LabCityCar — Most polluting route destinations November 2013. LabCityCar — Most polluting route destinations December 2013. LabCityCar — Most polluting route destinations January 2014. LabCityCar — Most popular route origins November 2013. LabCityCar — Most popular route origins in December 2013. LabCityCar — Most popular route origins in January 2014.

In a global study conducted in the first quarter of 2025, city breaks were the most popular holiday type for affluent individuals who were likely to visit Europe within the following year, being mentioned by ** percent of the sample. Meanwhile, ** percent of respondents said they were likely to take a sightseeing or touring holiday in the region.

Many European travel destinations have introduced taxes on accommodation services for tourists as a way to discourage overcrowding and work towards a more sustainable type of tourism. Barcelona, one of Europe’s most visited cities, also carries out such taxation. In addition, the Barcelona city council added on June 1st, 2021 a surcharge of originally **** euros to the already established tax, which was calculated based on the category of the accommodation establishment. This surcharge has increased several times since then, pushing the total tourist tax fee up. Since the beginning of October 2024, for example, visitors staying in 5-star and luxury hotels in Barcelona must pay *** euros per night, whereas the fee for lower accommodation services amounts to * euros per night. Which accommodation types are offered in Barcelona? There are more than ** thousand travel accommodation premises in Barcelona, most of which are short-term rentals. However, hotels account for the highest number of beds available in the Mediterranean city. In 2022, this number stood at over ** thousand, while the number of beds offered by homes for tourist use and tourist apartments amounted to roughly ** thousand. Where do visitors prefer to stay in Barcelona? Hotels are the first accommodation choice among tourists in Barcelona. In 2022, hotel establishments welcomed nearly ************* guests, which accounts for * out of 10 overnight visitors that year. But this choice also depends on the number of nights people decide to stay in the city. For instance, guesthouses and inns had an average length of stay of *** nights in 2022, while hotel guests only stayed *** nights on average.

The Louvre in Paris was the most visited museum in Europe in 2023. That year, the renowned institution, which also topped the ranking of the most visited museums worldwide, recorded around *** million visits. While attendance increased significantly over the previous year, it did not fully recover yet from the impact of COVID-19. Meanwhile, the Vatican Museums in the Vatican City and the British Museum in London followed in the ranking in 2023, with around *** million and *** million visits, respectively. London – the museum capital of Europe? Of the 20 most popular museums in Europe in 2023, *** were located in London. That year, the British Museum and the Natural History Museum in South Kensington ranked as the most visited tourist attractions in the United Kingdom, ahead of the Crown Estate's Windsor Great Park, which was England's most visited paid attraction in 2023. What are the most popular city tourism destinations in Europe? London and Paris ranked as the leading city tourism destinations in Europe based on the number of bed nights in 2023, ahead of Istanbul, Berlin, and Rome. That year, the two cities also reported the highest number of inbound tourist arrivals among leading European destinations, each with over ** million arrivals.