Chart of the day: These countries normally have the highest international tourist numbers

Jun 8, 2020

A tourist wearing a protective mask is seen near The Louvre as as the museum among top tourism landmarks closed their doors on Friday after France's government banned gatherings of more than 100 people to curb the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 in Paris, France March 14,2020. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes - RC2QJF9AHKJA

Some countries are re-opening their borders to international tourists, but it's predicted tourist numbers could fall by up to 80% in 2020. Image: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

David Elliott

Senior Writer, Forum Agenda

Our Impact

What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Industries in Depth?

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how COVID-19 is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

COVID-19

Some countries are considering easing coronavirus lockdowns to reopen their borders.
International tourist numbers could fall by up to 80% in 2020, the World Tourism Organization says.
Pre-crisis, France was the world’s most visited country.

With lockdowns beginning to ease, many countries are starting to think about how to restart an engine vital to their economies: tourism.

The European Union is exploring how it can safely open its internal borders to welcome summer visitors. Australians may be allowed to travel to New Zealand from July. And some Caribbean islands, like Saint Lucia, will begin to reopen in June.

Even so, international tourist numbers could fall by up to 80% in 2020, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

But, in a normal year, where are the most visited destinations?

Have you read?

France saw the most tourists in 2018. Image: World Tourism Organization via the World Bank

France is the world’s number one destination for international tourists, the most recent figures from the UNWTO show. Almost 90 million people visited the country in 2018.

Spain isn’t far behind, with over 82 million visitors. The United States, China and Italy complete the top five.

Discover

What is the World Economic Forum doing to manage emerging risks from COVID-19?

The first global pandemic in more than 100 years, COVID-19 has spread throughout the world at an unprecedented speed. At the time of writing, 4.5 million cases have been confirmed and more than 300,000 people have died due to the virus.

As countries seek to recover, some of the more long-term economic, business, environmental, societal and technological challenges and opportunities are just beginning to become visible.

To help all stakeholders – communities, governments, businesses and individuals understand the emerging risks and follow-on effects generated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Marsh and McLennan and Zurich Insurance Group, has launched its COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications - a companion for decision-makers, building on the Forum’s annual Global Risks Report.

The report reveals that the economic impact of COVID-19 is dominating companies’ risks perceptions.

Companies are invited to join the Forum’s work to help manage the identified emerging risks of COVID-19 across industries to shape a better future. Read the full COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications report here, and our impact story with further information.

These countries are also among the hardest-hit by COVID-19, with the US, Italy, France and Spain (along with the United Kingdom and Brazil) to date recording the world’s highest number of confirmed coronavirus deaths.

Lockdowns caused havoc in these economies – as they have in many others around the globe – and countries reliant on travel and tourism have seen “particularly large” disruptions, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Of the top five most visited nations, Spain in particular will be feeling the heat in this respect – international tourists spend about $81 billion in the country annually. That’s over 16% of its total exports, while the same figure is under 10% for France and Italy.

Those numbers pale in comparison to Saint Lucia, though, where international tourism receipts make up more than 81% of total exports.

Globally, the tourism industry accounts for 10% of GDP and jobs.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.