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Top 100 International Tourist Destination Cities By Country

26 Comments

Top 100 tourist cities by country

Number of Top 100 international tourist destination cities in each country. Created with mapchart.net

Which city is the most popular international tourist destination? Surprisingly, it’s not Paris, London or New York.

According to 2012 data from Euromonitor International, the number one tourist destination in the world was Hong Kong with 23.7 million visitors.

Singapore and Bangkok were ranked numbers 2 and 3 respectively, showing just how much Asian tourism has grown in recent years. London, at number 4, was the top ranked non-Asian city with 15.5 million international visitors and New York City, at number 8, was the most visited city in the Americas with 11.6 million tourists.

When looking at countries as a whole, the map at the top of the page is revealing. At first glance it shows just how few African countries made the list. Another interesting finding is that while London is the 4th most visited city, it’s the only UK city to make the list. Moreover, while many European countries have top 100 cities (Switzerland being a notable exception) none has more than Italy’s 4.

But that’s nothing compared to the big 3 who dominate the list:

  • India has 6 cities on the list: Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Kolkata.
  • The United States has 8: New York City, Las Vegas, Miami, Los Angeles, Orlando, San Francisco, Honolulu, Washington D.C.
  • And, China has whopping 9 cities: Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Zhuhai, Suzhou, Guilin, Nanjing.

Plus, this doesn’t include Hong Kong (#1) and Macau (#5), which ae both Special Administrative Regions of the People’s Republic of China.

Below are the complete rankings. Please note if you click on a city you’ll be taken to HotelsCombined where you can compare the cost of local hotels:

RankCityCountryTourists (Millions)
1Hong KongHong Kong23.7
2SingaporeSingapore21.3
3BangkokThailand15.8
4LondonUK15.5
5MacauMacau13.4
6Kuala LumpurMalaysia13.3
7ShenzhenChina12.1
8New York CityUSA11.6
9AntalyaTurkey10.3
10ParisFrance9.8
11IstanbulTurkey8.8
12RomeItaly8.7
13DubaiUAE8
14GuangzhouChina7.9
15PhuketThailand7.2
16MeccaSaudi Arabia6.9
17PattayaThailand6.6
18Taipei CityTaiwan6.6
19PragueCzech Republic6.5
20ShanghaiChina6.5
21Las VegasUSA6.3
22MiamiUSA6
23BarcelonaSpain5.5
24MoscowRussia5
25BeijingChina5
26Los AngelesUSA5
27BudapestHungary4.8
28ViennaAustria4.3
29AmsterdamNetherlands4.3
30SofiaBulgaria4.1
31MadridSpain4.1
32OrlandoUSA4.1
33Ho Chi Minh CityVietnam3.9
34LimaPeru3.8
35BerlinGermany3.8
36TokyoJapan3.7
37WarsawPoland3.7
38ChennaiIndia3.5
39CairoEgypt3.5
40NairobiKenya3.4
41HangzhouChina3.4
42MilanItaly3.3
43San FranciscoUSA3.2
44Buenos AiresArgentina3.2
45VeniceItaly3.2
46Mexico CityMexico3.1
47DublinIreland3.1
48SeoulSouth Korea3
49MuglaTurkey3
50MumbaiIndia3
51DenpasarIndonesia3
52DelhiIndia2.9
53TorontoCanada2.8
54ZhuhaiChina2.7
55St PetersburgRussia2.7
56BurgasBulgaria2.7
57SydneyAustralia2.7
58DjerbaTunisia2.6
59MunichGermany2.6
60JohannesburgSouth Africa2.6
61CancunMexico2.6
62EdirneTurkey2.6
63SuzhouChina2.5
64BucharestRomania2.4
65Punta CanaDominican Republic2.4
66AgraIndia2.4
67JaipurIndia2.3
68BrusselsBelgium2.3
69NiceFrance2.2
70Chiang MaiThailand2.2
71Sharm el-SheikhEgypt2.2
72LisbonPortugal2.2
73East ProvinceSaudi Arabia2.2
74MarrakechMorocco2.1
75JakartaIndonesia2.1
76ManamaBahrain2
77HanoiVietnam2
78HonoluluUSA2
79ManilaPhilippines2
80GuilinChina2
81AucklandNew Zealand2
82Siem ReapCambodia1.9
83SousseTunisia1.9
84AmmanJordan1.9
85VancouverCanada1.9
86Abu DhabiUAE1.9
87KievUkraine1.9
88DohaQatar1.9
89FlorenceItaly1.8
90Rio de JaneiroBrazil1.8
91MelbourneAustralia1.8
92Washington D.C.USA1.7
93RiyadhSaudi Arabia1.7
94ChristchurchNew Zealand1.7
95FrankfurtGermany1.7
96BakuAzerbaijan1.7
97Sao PauloBrazil1.7
98HarareZimbabwe1.7
99KolkataIndia1.6
100NanjingChina1.6

The data all comes from this Euromonitor International report. I’d strongly encourage you to read it if you’re curious about their methodology and other interesting findings.

If you’d like to learn about the growth of international tourism, have a look at the following books:

Did your favourite city not make the list? Let us know in the comments below:

Comments

  2. The results are biased. HK does get a massive flow of tourist but this can be explained by the fact that HK airport is a massive hub (works the same for Singapore airport). It’s not a touristic destination in itself, providing the tourist facilities out of HK international airport (very few) and the time people actually spend in hk. It’s more a stop over than a touristic destination. Then, you have the flow of Chinese tourists that cross the border on week ends to go shopping in HK. sqame situation, they benefit to the economy but can they actually be counted as part of the touristic industry ?

    So yes, in term of people you can rank it that way but the figures do not say what kind of flows arrive to HK.

    Reply

    • No, it is not based on inbound flights. It is based on the fact that thousands of mainlanders walk across the border every day to buy non-contaminated baby formula.

      Reply

  3. As Sa said concerning Hong Kong, this list measures arrivals of tourists, I assume, at the cities’ international airports (see report). This does not show how long tourists stay in these cities, if at all. Many of the cities are close to interesting historic and scenic areas.

    Reply

  4. Hong Kong first ? Is it a joke ? There’s nithing to see there ! Nothing, comparing to Paris, London, NYC or Beijing…

    Reply

    • It counts mainland tourists, who can walk across the border. But as far as “nothing to see” – have you ever actually been there?

      Reply

      • Yes, I’ve been there several times. Besides shopping and a few sites, what can you see there. Paris, for example, is much much more worth it.

        Reply

        • Funny.. I had the same impression of Paris. Once you see the Eiffel tower and a few other sites, there is not much “there” there except for overpriced restaurants and snooty bakeries 😀

          Reply

  9. Munich had 14.1 million visitors last year – and that wasn’t even the best, so how come it isn’t on the list?!

    Reply

  10. india brautiful country with lots of diversity and more than 22+ official language having wonders of the world filled with colors and more than 2000+ local language and world second largest English speaking nation having desert ,hills,mountain,snow fall ,largest green forest,.i think it is a pack of whole European + africa.
    it has lots of beautiful beaches in then having world almost every religion ,here you get temple,mosque ,churchs,and many more

    Reply

  12. India is a beautiful country with lots and different culture. you will be able to learn more about its culture, traditions and languages with different food recipes.

    Reply

  15. Echo sentiments above. HK is a transport hub. Much more complex than first seems. India already has large population so will skew figures for there.

    Reply

  17. Here is an interesting fact about the list. Turkish city Edirne has only 200K population and not so much touristic to get in this list on 62th place in the world and 4th in Turkey. Why is it here? Because Edirne covers the western border of Turkey between Bulgaria and Greece and so the EU. It is not just touristic numbers, it is also industrial transportation and transit passages all over to Turkey. This list is not accurate.

    Reply

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