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World's Most Visited Tourist Attractions

Gavin

Gavin

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This article just popped up on my Facebook feed and I thought it was quite interesting to see how the busiest theme parks stack up when compared to more traditional, famous tourist attractions.

A quick preview:

For nearly 500 years, the emperors living within Beijing’s opulent Forbidden City dictated who could enter and leave. Well, the gates have opened, and tourists are pouring in to see it all for themselves. Attendance is up by 2.5 million since 2010.

The Forbidden City is a dream destination for some Americans, but most have never researched a trip to Everland or Lotte World. Yet these South Korean theme parks also rank among the world’s 50 most-visited tourist attractions—beating out the Eiffel Tower (nearly 7 million), the Great Pyramids (4 million), and Stonehenge (1 million). And there are more surprises.

Where we choose to spend our vacation time says a lot about what we value. Despite—or perhaps because of—what the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) calls “global economic challenges,” more travelers are hitting the road than ever. International tourist arrivals increased by 5 percent in 2013, according to the UNWTO. That translates to a record of more than one billion trips. With its population of 1.36 billion, China became the second-largest exporter of tourists. Russia, now the fifth-largest outbound market, increased travel spending by 26 percent.

Like it or not, theme parks clearly have worldwide appeal. France’s Disneyland Park draws about the same number of visitors (10.5 million) as Sacré Coeur, and four of the world’s 20 most-visited tourist attractions are Disney parks.

Many inspiring and iconic places can’t quite keep up. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum narrowly missed the top 50, as did the British Museum in London (6.7 million), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (6.3 million), and the Roman Colosseum and Forum (5.1 million each). The Berlin Wall Memorial Site logged only 500,000 visitors in 2013, though extra crowds are arriving in November 2014 for the 25th anniversary of its fall.

Accessibility can be a factor. It takes extra effort to reach Yellowstone National Park (3.2 million) or the Terracotta Army in Xi'an, China (4.8 million). And Peru’s Machu Picchu has restricted tourism to help maintain the site’s integrity; only 2,500 can enter per day, or 912,500 per year.

So what is the most-visited tourist attraction in the world? And can 91 million people be wrong? Read on to see the results—and an explanation of our methods for calculating it all.
Click to expand...

Full article here, including the top 50 tourist attractions:

http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/worlds-most-visited-tourist-attractions?fb_ref=fbsharebar
 
That is really interesting Gavin, amazing how many theme parks actually make the cut!

And I'd never have guessed that the no.1 most visited in the world would be marketplace!
 
Yeah that was interesting (even if the railway stations/markets do seem a bit tenuous)

...I cut/pasted the details;

--
#1 Grand Bazaar, Istanbul (91,250,000)
#2 The Zócalo, Mexico City (85,000,000)
#3 Times Square, New York City (50,000,000)
#4 (tie) Central Park, New York City (40,000,000)
#4 (tie) Union Station, Washington, D.C. (40,000,000)
#6 Las Vegas Strip (30,500,000)
#7 (tie) Meiji Jingu Shrine, Tokyo (30,000,000)
#7 (tie) Sensoji Temple, Tokyo (30,000,000)
#9 Niagara Falls, New York and Ontario (22,000,000)
#10 Grand Central Terminal, New York City (21,600,00)
#11 Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City (20,000,000)
#12 Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (18,588,000)
#13 Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston (18,000,000)
#14 Tokyo Disneyland (17,214,000)
#15 Disneyland Park, Ca (16,202,000)
#16 Forbidden City, Beijing (15,340,000)
#17 Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco (14,289,121)
#18 Tokyo DisneySea (14,084,000)
#19 Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris (14,000,000)
#20 Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (13,000,000)
#21 Balboa Park, San Diego (12,000,000 to 14,000,000)
#22 South Street Seaport, New York City (12,000,000)
#23 San Antonio River Walk, San Antonio, TX (11,500,000)
#24 Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort (11,229,000)
#25 St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Italy (11,000,000)
#26 Great Wall of China (10,720,000)
#27 Sacré Coeur Basilica, Paris (10,500,000)
#28 Disneyland Park, Marne-la-Vallée, France (10,430,000)
#29 Disney’s Animal Kingdom (10,198,000)
#30 Disney’s Hollywood Studios (10,110,000)
#31 Universal Studios Japan (10,100,000)
#32 Hollywood Walk of Fame, Hollywood, CA (10,000,000 to 12,000,000)
#33 Pike Place Market, Seattle (10,000,000)
#34 Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee (9,345,695)
#35 Musée du Louvre, Paris (9,334,000)
#36 Navy Pier, Chicago (8,900,000)
#37 Disney’s California Adventure (8,514,000)
#38 Sydney Opera House, Sydney (8,200,000)
#39 Universal’s Islands of Adventure (8,141,000)
#40 (tie) Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. (8,000,000)
#40 (tie) Grand Palace, Bangkok (8,000,000)
#40 (tie) Pier 39, San Francisco (8,000,000)
#43 Palace of Versailles, France (7,527,122)
#44 Ocean Park, Hong Kong (7,475,000)
#45 Bourbon Street, New Orleans (7,470,000)
#46 National Museum of China, Beijing (7,450,000)
#47 (tie) Hong Kong Disneyland (7,400,000)
#47 (tie) Lotte World, Seoul (7,400,000)
#49 Everland, Gyeonggi-Do, South Korea (7,303,000)
#50 Taj Mahal, Agra, India (7,000,000 to 8,000,000)
--

I've been to 36 out of the 50, such a tourist. :lol:
 
I've only been to 5 and they are all theme parks. Oh dear, I'm not cultural at all it would seem.

Unless I'm being blind (and I've scanned several times) I can't see the Eiffel Tower on there. This surprises me. I thought this was one of the world's most visited attractions.
 
Re: that French tower, a quick google says 6.7 million visitors in 2013... Everland FTW!

(and the original 'quote' in Gavin's first post mentions that too)
 
I've been to 8, only one of them is a theme park :)
Interestingly enough, I've visited all of them in just 2 trips, the Paris and the Cali one :D
 
I've only visited the France ones. My parents never used to take us to big tourist locations. We preferred smaller and more relaxing campings in France, Germany, Belgium and Italy. Nowadays I would rather travel to a theme park than one of the big tourist-y places. I'm lame like that :wink: . I do love some culture, but it's usually the less busy cities like Stockholm.
 
I've been to.

#3 Times Square, New York City (50,000,000)
#12 Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (18,588,000)
#24 Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort (11,229,000)
#30 Disney’s Hollywood Studios (10,110,000)
#39 Universal’s Islands of Adventure (8,141,000)
#40 (tie) Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. (8,000,000)

6 isn't too bad. 4 out 6 are theme parks though. The last time I went to any of these places was Universal in 2011 so it's been awhile.
 
^^Stockholm is absolutely gorgeous to be fair, I had the best time there this year! One of my absolute faves!

I've been to exactly half of them, and am doing three more next year. I'm really happy with that to be honest!

I find these lists really interesting, and it does say so much about the way that Disney dominate not just theme parks but tourism in general. Apart from theme parks, there's only a sprinkling of "attractions" rather than "monuments", if you get me?
 
Very intriguing to see the grand attendance for each site. I have been to 26 total out of that list, with the American parks being the only theme parks.
 
Once I get to Animal Kingdom and IOA in February, I'll have been to 37 of them. The most popular doesn't really equate to much in terms of quality though, especially with regard to the sorts of places on the list that, while they may be tourist attractions, will also get heavy footfall through more everyday use.
 
I've been to one - Disney. I've driven past a few in the car, but that doesn't really count. Although, apart from the theme parks, the list is boring. I'd rather inject myself with fairy liquid than go sight seeing.
 
^ I'm sure you could find some on the Vegas Strip should you visit. ;)
 
Been to absolutely none of them haha, that's a shocker. Expected there to be at least the odd London one in there and of places I've visited abroad I'm surprised the Sagrada or Anne Frank Musuem aren't there.
 
Technically Nick Universe is #1 among amusement parks since Mall of America gets 40 million visitors annually. I guess they chose not to include shopping malls here, which was the right choice probably, but MOA does get massive, massive, massive !! unbelievably massive attendance each year.
 
^ Does everyone who visits the mall visit Nick Universe though? I'm assuming there's a separate ticketing/entrance for it that they'd be able to actually count?
 
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