Bangkok had the most international overnight visitors in 2018 with 22.78 million, followed by Paris and London with 19.1 and 19.09 million, respectively.
 

 Is Bangkok the world’s number one tourist destination?

Bangkok has become increasingly popular as a tourist attraction over the past years, and its popularity looks unlikely to wane any time soon. The number of overnight visitors to Thailand’s capital has more than doubled since 2010. The city has many attractions on offer, including temples, local markets, a varied nightlife and shopping. Therefore, it may come as no surprise that Bangkok was also one of the leading cities in international visitor spending worldwide in 2018, with visitors to the city spending over 20 billion U.S. dollars. Although tourists spend a lot of money when traveling to Bangkok, it still ranked among the 30 cheapest holiday destinations in the world by average price per night per person in 2018.

Global tourism industry 

Globally, the tourism industry has experienced continuous year-over-year growth for the past decade. In 2018, the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide was estimated to reach approximately 1.4 billion – the figure having more than doubled over the past 15 years.

Digital nomads generally combine remote work and travel for various reasons and lengths of time. Passionate about traveling, they make the most of new technologies and only need an internet connection to work from anywhere in the world. According to the source, ****** was the most visited city by digital nomads as of June 2025, accounting for a little over *********** of trips by digital nomads worldwide.

According to a study by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Paris was the city with the highest direct travel and tourism contribution to GDP in 2022. That year, the direct travel and tourism GDP in the capital of France - the country with the highest number of international tourist arrivals worldwide - amounted to roughly ***** billion U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, Beijing and Orlando followed on the ranking in 2022, with a direct travel and tourism GDP of around **** billion and **** billion U.S. dollars, respectively.

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.

Digital nomads generally combine remote work and travel for various reasons and lengths of time. Passionate about traveling, they make the most of new technologies and only need an internet connection to work from anywhere in the world. According to the source, London was the most visited city by digital nomads as of March 2024, accounting for roughly 2.3 percent of trips by digital nomads worldwide.

Three Mexican cities were among the ten world's best-rated destinations in 2023, according to a survey conducted among Travel + Leisure readers. In 2023, Oaxaca ranked first with a score of 93.53. Udaipur in India followed closely behind with a score of 93.33, while Kyoto in Japan placed third on the list.

In 2023, 48 percent of international visitors to Singapore visited the Integrated Resorts in Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), making it the most visited paid tourist attraction in Singapore. This was closely followed by the Gardens by the Bay, which was named the eight best attraction globally in 2024 by Tripadvisor. Singapore boasts several world-class attractions which contribute to a robust tourism sector. Singapore: A Unique Tourist Destination Despite being surrounded by popular tourist destinations in Asia, Singapore has successfully marketed itself as a must-visit location. The city-state offers unique visitor attractions such as the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, two cooled conservatories in the Gardens by the Bay, one of the world’s largest aquariums in Sentosa, as well as a vibrant cultural and food scene. This strategy has not only helped in drawing first time tourists but has also ensured repeat visitors. Visitor Profile and Spending Trends In 2023, a majority of the visitors to Singapore were there on holiday. Visitors in that year spent the most on sightseeing, entertainment, and gaming, followed by shopping. The largest feeder markets for visitors to Singapore were from Indonesia, China, and Malaysia.

Data from the following digital consultation campaign: "Assises du Tourisme durable Paris 2021"

The consultation was open on idee.paris from May 20 to June 23, 2021.

Paris is one of the most visited cities in the world. Struck by the health crisis, the City of Paris presented a support plan in May 2020 for the most affected players (commerce, culture, tourism). The City was preparing the revival with the actors of the sector and wished to play a particular role in the invention of a more sustainable and local tourism, more eco-responsible, more resistant to crises, more respectful of its territory and its inhabitants, and thus becoming exemplary in the emergence of tourism with a positive impact in the light of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Through the questionnaire, the vision of Parisians provided food for thought and discussions with industry players. The sharing of practices and desires has helped the city to better shape the tourism of tomorrow.

This statistic shows the most visited tourist attractions worldwide as of April 2014. Each year, 22.5 million people visit Niagara Falls.

Most visited tourist attractions - additional information

Attracting just short of 40 million visitors per year, the Las Vegas Strip was the most visited tourist attraction in the world as of April 2014, closely followed by Times Square in New York City with 39.2 million. The top nine tourist attractions, and 28 out of the top 50, were located in the United States. With so much to see and do in their own country, it is not surprising that many U.S. travelers choose to take domestic trips over international ones – in 2014, 84 percent of people taking trips were traveling domestically, compared to just 16 percent traveling abroad.

The Las Vegas Strip, situated in Las Vegas in the state of Nevada, is well-known for its gambling and casino scene, nightlife, restaurants and shopping. The city is packed with resorts offering a variety of entertainment for visitors. Nevada’s most famous industry, casino gaming, was expected to generate around 13 billion U.S. dollars in 2015. Las Vegas is also a leader in the U.S. meetings and conventions industry, hosting more than 22 thousand conventions in 2013.

Outside of the U.S., the most visited tourist attraction was the Forbidden City in Beijing, receiving more than 15 million visitors annually. Built in the early fifteenth century, the Forbidden City was home to Emperors and the center of Chinese government from the Ming dynasty until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912. The most visited tourist attraction in Europe was the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey. The ancient market received 15 million visitors in 2014, although only ranked 11th worldwide.

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Data from the following digital consultation campaign: “Assises du Tourisme durable Paris 2021”

The consultation was open on idee.paris from May 20 to June 23, 2021.

Paris is one of the most visited cities in the world. Hit by the health crisis, the City of Paris presented a support plan in May 2020 for those most affected (commerce, culture, tourism). The City was preparing the relaunch with players in the sector and wanted to play a particular role in the invention of more sustainable and local tourism, more eco-responsible, more resistant to crises, more respectful of its territory and its inhabitants, and thus becoming exemplary in the emergence of tourism with a positive impact in the light of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Through the questionnaire, the vision of Parisians helped to fuel the reflection and the debates held with stakeholders in the sector. Sharing practices and desires helped the city better shape the tourism of tomorrow.

According to a 2024 study, Marrakech was expected to report the highest increase in number of tourist visits per square kilometers from 2023 to 2030 among the selected global destinations. Over that period, the tourism density in the Moroccan city was projected to rise by ** percent. Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Dubrovnik in Croatia followed in the ranking, with growth forecast to total ** percent and ** percent, respectively.

In 2023, the total number of tourist overnight stays in Florence, including international and domestic travelers, increased sharply over the previous year, but remained below pre-pandemic levels. Overall, travel accommodation establishments in Florence reported around 9.8 million overnight stays by inbound visitors and roughly 2.9 million overnight stays by domestic tourists in 2023. Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance Florence is one of the best-known cities in Italy and a popular destination for tourists from all over the world. Located in the region of Tuscany, it is the eighth-largest city in Italy in terms of population size. Since the Middle Ages, the city has been an important center of art, culture, trade, and politics, but its true heyday started in the 14th century, with the beginning of the Renaissance. It was in Florence that this innovative philosophical and art movement was born, and the city was home to some of the greatest poets and artists of the period, like Francesco Petrarca, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci. Impact of COVID-19 on Italian tourism Tourism is one of the most significant economic sectors in Italy, contributing to over 200 billion euros in 2019. Due to the impact of the health crisis, however, the total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in Italy in 2022 was still three percent lower than pre-pandemic levels. Similarly, while the number of international tourist arrivals in Italy rebounded in 2022, it did not catch up yet with the figures from 2019. Overall, the highest volume of tourist arrivals came from Germany, France, and Austria in 2022.

In 2023, inbound visitor numbers to the Middle East grew by almost 40 percent. The Middle East is witnessing a robust recovery in tourism, indicating a positive trend following the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent travel restrictions.

MENA tourism types

Tourism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region reached approximately six percent of the total worldwide tourist arrivals in 2018 according to United Nations World Tourism Organization. The number of tourism arrivals in the MENA region in 2018 exceeded 60 million, of which 15.8 million were received in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Tourism is one of the main pillars on which the MENA economies depend on. The efforts to diversify their oil-based economies have placed further importance on the tourism industry. Tourism in the MENA region includes business, leisure, health and wellness, religious, cultural, and shopping tourism. Morocco was the leading country in wellness tourism in 2015 with about 2.5 million visitors.

The MENA region has a variety of natural, cultural, heritage, and religious assets such as the Giza Pyramids in Egypt and the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. In addition to the MENA region’s UNESCO World Heritage Lists’ ancient monuments and archaeological sites, they also have world-leading man-made attractions such as the Burg Khalifa and Atlantis City in Dubai, as well as lavish malls and shopping centers. The UAE was rated the most competitive tourism destination in the MENA region in 2018 with a score of 4.4 out of seven points according to the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index.

MENA tourism trends

The emirate of Dubai in the UAE had the highest value of international tourist receipts of more than 21 billion U.S. dollars in 2018. The total value for the entire MENA region was 73 billion U.S. dollars. The most popular online travel company among MENA region tourists in 2018 was booking.com. Tourism arrivals in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries were expected to surpass 64.3 million tourists by 2020.

The contribution of the industry to the MENA job market was projected to reach 7.2 million jobs by 2028. However, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic affected the travel and tourism sector significantly. More than 60 percent of business owners in the Gulf Cooperation Council in that year reported their businesses being impacted by travel difficulties and restrictions).

The number of international tourist arrivals worldwide rose sharply in 2023 compared to the previous year across all the most visited destinations in the world. Overall, France was the most visited country by inbound travelers worldwide in 2023, with *** million international tourist arrivals. Spain, the United States, and Italy followed in the ranking that year. Has global inbound tourism recovered from the impact of COVID-19? In 2023, the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide totaled approximately *** billion. While this figure represented a ** percent annual increase, it remained below the peak in inbound tourist arrivals reported in 2019, the year before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. That said, international tourism receipts worldwide exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2023, peaking at *** trillion U.S. dollars. What are the most popular global regions for inbound tourism? When breaking down the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide by region, Europe has consistently reported the highest volume of inbound travelers, both before and after the impact of the health crisis. In 2023, this region alone accounted for roughly ** percent of global inbound tourist arrivals. Meanwhile, Asia and the Pacific recorded the second-highest number of inbound tourist arrivals worldwide in 2023.

The Travel Survey of Residents of Canada (TSRC) is a major source of data used to measure the size and status of Canada's tourism industry. It was developed to quantify the volume, the characteristics and the economic impact of domestic travel. For the system of national accounts, TSRC measures the size of domestic travel in Canada from the demand side. Since the beginning of 2005, the TRSC replaces the Canadian Travel Survey (CTS). Featuring several definitional changes and a new questionnaire, this survey provides estimates of domestic travel that are more in line with the international guidelines recommended by the World Tourism Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Statistical Commission. Please see Appendix D for differences between the CTS and the TSRC. In 2011, the TRSC underwent a redesign. Please see Appendix C for the differences between the 2006-2010 TSRC and the redesign 2011 TSRC. The TSRC is sponsored by Statistics Canada, the Canadian Tourism Commission, the provincial governments, two federal organizations and a consortium of Canadian cities. The objectives of the survey are: to provide information about the volume of trips, visits and expenditures for Canadian residents by trip origin, destination, duration, type of accommodation used, trip reason, mode of travel, etc.; to provide information on travel incidence; to provide the socio-demographic profile of travellers and non-travellers. Estimates allow quarterly analysis at the national, provincial and tourism region level (with varying degrees of precision) on: total volume of same-day and overnight trips taken by Canadians in Canada or with an international destination where at least one night of the trip was spent in Canada. same-day and overnight visits in Canada main purpose of the trip/key activities done while on trip spending on same-day and overnight trips taken in Canada by Canadian residents in total and by category of expenditure, modes of transportation (main/other) used on the trip visits and spending in total and by expense category for each location visited in Canada (a location is defined as either the main destination, or a place where 1 or more nights was spent) nights spent in each location visited in Canada, in total and by type of accommodation used use of travel packages and associated spending and source of payment (household, public and private employer) demographics of adults that took or did not take any trips travel party composition There are three files for this survey - Trip File, Visit File, and Person File. The difference between the Preliminary version (released January 2013) and the Final version (released March 2013) is the geography variables: the Tourism Region variable was removed from the Final version.

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

The number of visitors to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, bounced back in 2022, following a sharp drop with the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Overall, attendance at the renowned monument totaled around 5.85 million in 2022, and then 6.32 million in 2023. Built between 1887 and 1889 as part of the preparations for the Worlds’ Fair, the Eiffel Tower is one of the most iconic symbols of Paris and France. The Eiffel Tower: a French icon With its recognizable silhouette, the Eiffel Tower is the most famous attraction of the city of Paris. However, the number of tourists visiting the monument has been oscillating since 2011. In 2016, a year after the Paris terrorist attacks, the monument received only 5.84 million visitors, compared to almost seven million the year before. Since then, the number of tourists appears to be increasing reaching over 6 million visitors in 2018 and 2019. Most of visitors of the tower are French tourists. The tower is not only a symbol of Paris, it is also a lucrative business which had a turnover generated by ticket sales of more than 66.1 million euros in 2015. Tourism in Paris Despite its popularity, the Eiffel Tower is not the most visited cultural venues of Paris. In 2017, Notre Dame, as well as the Sacré Coeur and the Louvre Museum, attracted more tourists than the Tower. Paris keeps being one of the most attractive city destinations for French and foreign visitors. The French capital was the city with sixth highest international visitor spend in the world with more than 15 million international overnight visitors in 2016.

Aside from sight-seeing and relaxation, some tourists will also consider the food and drink experiences that a destination provides when planning their next trip. Among the most visited cities around the world, London topped the list of cities with the most number of food and drink tours worldwide as of June 2020, with a total of 385. This was followed by Paris and New York.

Aside from sight-seeing and relaxation, tourists can also consider cultural experiences that a destination provides when planning their next trip. Among the most visited cities around the world, London topped the list of cities with the most number of nightlife venues and concerts as of June 2020, with a total of 890. This was followed by Paris and Tokyo.