Embrace the wisdom of crowds by adding the world’s most-visited
tourist attractions to your bucket list.From October 2011 By Kate
Appleton, Rich Beattie,
Adrien Glover,
Lyndsey Matthews, Joshua Pramis,
Ann Shields
Ever heard of Everland or Lotte World? Most Americans have never planned a
trip to these South Korean theme parks, yet they rank among the world’s 50
most-visited tourist attractions—beating out the Great Pyramids (4 million), the
Taj Mahal (3 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,
and despite—or perhaps because of—the lingering global economic crisis, we are
traveling more than ever. International tourist arrivals were up 6.6 percent in
2010, according to the World Tourism Organization. China ousted Spain as the
third most-visited country with 55.7 million foreign arrivals, while France and
the U.S. held tight to their first and second place rankings.
Like it or not, theme parks are just as appealing in these countries as they
are in South Korea. Disneyland Paris drew the same number of visitors (10.5
million) as Sacré-Coeur, and two of the world’s 10 most-visited tourist
attractions are Disney parks. America also dominates our list. Some credit goes
to the weak U.S. dollar, which drew 8.7 percent more foreign tourists in 2010
than the previous year—and likely persuaded many Americans to explore within our
vast borders.
China and India are even bigger than the U.S., but their lack of dependable
visitor statistics and limited domestic tourism markets help account for their
few attractions on our list. Expect to see more of them over time; already
attendance at Beijing’s Forbidden City has surged from 7 million visitors in
2007 to 12.83 million visitors in 2010.
So what is the most-visited tourist attraction in the world? And can 39.2
million people be wrong? Read on to see the results—and an explanation of our
methods for calculating it all.
The Methodology: To tally up the world’s most-visited
attractions, we gathered the most recent data supplied by the attractions
themselves or from government agencies, industry reports, and reputable media
outlets. Whenever available we used 2010 data; however, in the case of theme
parks and a few other attractions, the most recent attendance numbers were from
2009.
Attractions that don’t sell tickets gave us estimates as best they could. The
Times Square Alliance was able to estimate that 80 percent of the 49 million
tourists who visited New York in 2010 passed through Times Square. But Berlin’s
East Side Gallery and London’s Trafalgar Square were excluded because their
tourism bureaus couldn’t provide estimates that distinguished between visitors
and locals.
We defined “tourist attractions” as cultural and historical sites, natural
landmarks, and officially designated spaces. So Boston’s shop-filled Faneuil
Hall Marketplace (est. 1742) made the cut, but not Minnesota’s Mall of
America—with 40 million annual visitors it would otherwise have been number one.
Short walkways and waterfront promenades also fit our definition of tourist
attractions; that disqualified the Blue Ridge Parkway. We also excluded sights
that draw almost exclusively religious pilgrims.
New attractions like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter lifted attendance at
Universal’s Islands of Adventure Park in Orlando by more than 1.7 million
visitors. Admission ticket sales beat out next-door neighbor Universal Studios,
but since they’re all part of Universal Orlando Resort, we counted Universal
only once. (We counted Orlando’s Disney parks separately since they are further
apart than the other theme park resorts included.) --Lyndsey
Matthews
tourist attractions to your bucket list.From October 2011 By Kate
Appleton, Rich Beattie,
Adrien Glover,
Lyndsey Matthews, Joshua Pramis,
Ann Shields
Ever heard of Everland or Lotte World? Most Americans have never planned a
trip to these South Korean theme parks, yet they rank among the world’s 50
most-visited tourist attractions—beating out the Great Pyramids (4 million), the
Taj Mahal (3 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,
and despite—or perhaps because of—the lingering global economic crisis, we are
traveling more than ever. International tourist arrivals were up 6.6 percent in
2010, according to the World Tourism Organization. China ousted Spain as the
third most-visited country with 55.7 million foreign arrivals, while France and
the U.S. held tight to their first and second place rankings.
Like it or not, theme parks are just as appealing in these countries as they
are in South Korea. Disneyland Paris drew the same number of visitors (10.5
million) as Sacré-Coeur, and two of the world’s 10 most-visited tourist
attractions are Disney parks. America also dominates our list. Some credit goes
to the weak U.S. dollar, which drew 8.7 percent more foreign tourists in 2010
than the previous year—and likely persuaded many Americans to explore within our
vast borders.
China and India are even bigger than the U.S., but their lack of dependable
visitor statistics and limited domestic tourism markets help account for their
few attractions on our list. Expect to see more of them over time; already
attendance at Beijing’s Forbidden City has surged from 7 million visitors in
2007 to 12.83 million visitors in 2010.
So what is the most-visited tourist attraction in the world? And can 39.2
million people be wrong? Read on to see the results—and an explanation of our
methods for calculating it all.
The Methodology: To tally up the world’s most-visited
attractions, we gathered the most recent data supplied by the attractions
themselves or from government agencies, industry reports, and reputable media
outlets. Whenever available we used 2010 data; however, in the case of theme
parks and a few other attractions, the most recent attendance numbers were from
2009.
Attractions that don’t sell tickets gave us estimates as best they could. The
Times Square Alliance was able to estimate that 80 percent of the 49 million
tourists who visited New York in 2010 passed through Times Square. But Berlin’s
East Side Gallery and London’s Trafalgar Square were excluded because their
tourism bureaus couldn’t provide estimates that distinguished between visitors
and locals.
We defined “tourist attractions” as cultural and historical sites, natural
landmarks, and officially designated spaces. So Boston’s shop-filled Faneuil
Hall Marketplace (est. 1742) made the cut, but not Minnesota’s Mall of
America—with 40 million annual visitors it would otherwise have been number one.
Short walkways and waterfront promenades also fit our definition of tourist
attractions; that disqualified the Blue Ridge Parkway. We also excluded sights
that draw almost exclusively religious pilgrims.
New attractions like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter lifted attendance at
Universal’s Islands of Adventure Park in Orlando by more than 1.7 million
visitors. Admission ticket sales beat out next-door neighbor Universal Studios,
but since they’re all part of Universal Orlando Resort, we counted Universal
only once. (We counted Orlando’s Disney parks separately since they are further
apart than the other theme park resorts included.) --Lyndsey
Matthews