The United Nations World Tourism Organization has just released figures showing foreign visitors around the world in 2012.
Top of the list was France, with 83 million visitors, followed by the US and then China & Spain in equal 3rd place. Other popular destinations for UK visitors in the top 10 include – Italy, Turkey and Malaysia.
By contrast the amount spent by tourists was a very different figure with the US being double the next country. This reflects the fact that so many visitors to the US are long distance travellers on long trips (18 days average) as opposed to the short stay or transit visitors throughout much of Europe.
The per capita spend also showed a different picture and it was not the US or Western Europe at the top of the list. Casino rich Macau was top of the list at an average of US$3,213 per person.
In a separate report from Mastercard the most visited capital in the world was Bangkok, closely followed by London; although the latter significantly outperformed the rest of the world in terms of average visitor spend.
For details of these two reports see this recent BBC article.
As with all surveys you have to question the value of them and their validity if you are, in this instance, looking at total visitors whether on a 1 night stay or a 2 week holiday. We would always veer towards visitor satisfaction and thus like to look at the winners of the annual Wanderlust Travel Magazine readers poll.
For 2013 the top 5 countries were:
- Myanmar (Burma)
- Peru
- New Zealand
- Bhutan
- Jordan
with a top 5 emerging destinations of:
- Nicaragua
- Greenland
- Taiwan
- Albania
- Sudan.
Speak to us here at Putney Travel if you fancy visiting any of these places.
by TMS