The World Tourism rankings are compiled by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as part of their World Tourism Barometer publication, which is released three times throughout the year. In the publication, world tourism is ranked both by the number of visits and by the tourism revenue generated.
International tourist arrivals by country of destination 2010
Rank Country International tourist arrivals 1 France
78.95 million 2 United States
60.88 million 3 China
55.98 million 4 Spain
53.00 million International tourist arrivals by country of destination 2009
Rank Country International tourist arrivals 1 74.20 million 2 54.88 million 3 52.23 million 4 50.88 million 5 Italy
43.24 million 6 United Kingdom
28.20 million 7 Turkey
25.51 million 8 Germany
24.22 million 9 Malaysia
23.65 million 10 Mexico
21.45 million
- Out of the total of almost 46 million tourists to Africa in 2009, the top ten African destinations were
Rank Country International tourist arrivals 1 Morocco
8.34 million 2 South Africa
7.01 million 3 Tunisia
6.90 million 4 Mozambique
2.39 million 5 Zimbabwe
2.01 million 6 Algeria
1.91 million 7 Botswana
1.55 million 8 Kenya
1.14 million (2008) 9 Swaziland
0.909 million 10 Mauritius
0.871 million - Out of the total of over 53 million tourists to the Middle East in 2009, the top ten destinations were:
Rank Country International tourist arrivals 1 Egypt
11.91 million 2 Saudi Arabia
10.90 million 3 United Arab Emirates
7.13 million (2005) 4 Syria
6.09 million 5 Bahrain
4.94 million (2007) 6 Jordan
3.79 million 7 Israel
3.45 million 8 Lebanon
1.85 million 9 Qatar
1.66 million 10 Yemen
0.434 million - Out of the total of over 165 million tourists to the Americas in 2009, the top ten destinations were
Rank Country International tourist arrivals 1 54.88 million 2 21.45 million 3 Canada
15.74 million 4 Brazil
4.80 million 5 Argentina
4.60 million 6 Dominican Republic
3.99 million 7 Puerto Rico
3.55 million 8 Chile
2.75 million 9 Cuba
2.41 million 10 Colombia
2.15 million - Out of the total of over 181 million tourists to Asia and the Pacific in 2009, the top ten destinations were
Rank Country International tourist arrivals 1 50.88 million 1 23.65 million 3 Hong Kong, China
16.93 million 4 Thailand
14.15 million 5 Macau, China
10.40 million 6 South Korea
7.82 million 7 Singapore
7.49 million 8 Japan
6.79 million 9 Indonesia
6.32 million 10 Australia
5.58 million
- Out of the total of over 459 million tourists to Europe in 2009, the top ten destinations were
Rank Country International tourist arrivals 1 74.2 million 2 49.4 million 3 40.2 million 4 34.7 million 5 30.1 million 6 21.3 million 7 Austria
19.4 million 8 Greece
14.5 million 9 Switzerland
13.8 million 10 Netherlands
12.4 million
International tourist arrivals by country of destination 2008
The top ten international destinations in 2008 were
Rank | Country | International tourist arrivals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | France | 79.22 million |
| 2 | United States | 57.94 million |
| 3 | Spain | 57.19 million |
| 4 | China | 53.05 million |
| 5 | Italy | 42.73 million |
| 6 | United Kingdom | 30.14 million |
| 7 |  Ukraine | 25.39 million |
| 8 | Turkey | 24.99 million |
| 9 | Germany | 24.87 million |
| 10 | Mexico | 22.64 million |
- ^ "China world's third most visited country: UN". The Independent. AFP. 26 January 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2011.
- ^ a b "Recovery Confirmed, but Growth Remains Uneven". UNWTO World Tourism Barometer (UNWTO) 8 (2). June 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g "International Tourist Arrivals back at 2008 pre-crisis peak level". UNWTO World Tourism Barometer (UNWTO) 8 (3). October 2010. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
