The World’s Favourite Tourist Destinations Have Been Revealed
There are a lot of ways to define a destination’s popularity among tourists, though the folks at the Madrid-based UN World Tourism Organisation (UNTWO) reckon crunching the numbers is the way to go. Each year, they rank the world’s favourite nations based on the number of visitors they hosted for at least one night in the previous calendar year.
(Rankings are typically released in January, but were delayed this year, with the UNTWO World Tourism Barometer and Statistical Annex published in June and released thereafter.)
Despite being rocked by a number of challenges, the world is still in love with France. The romantic European nation took out the top spot, clocking a mammoth 82.6 million visitors in 2016 and retaining its 2015 title. Scroll through to see which other nations made the top five. [listicle]
France
82.6 million visitors
Image: Chateau de Versailles
USA
75.61 million visitors
Image: Anthony Quintano / Flickr
Spain
75.56 million visitors
Image: Basilica de la Sagrada Familia / Facebook
China
60 million visitors
Image: Keith Roper / Flickr
Italy
52.4 million visitors
Image: Thomas Fabian / Flickr[/listicle]
(Lead image: Gadjo_Niglo / Flickr)
