As we start a new year, in fact a whole new decade, it’s interesting to look back and see how travel and tourism has shaped the globe over the last few years. The UNWTO’s statistics for the most visited visited countries in 2018 tell a fascinating story. We won’t have 2019’s final tally for a while but we expect the results will be about the same. The world’s busiest places are the countries which attract the most tourism.

The Most Visited Countries

1. France – 95.8 million
2. Spain – 85,3 million
3. USA – 78.3 million
4. China – 62.5 million
5. Italy – 60.2 million
6. Turkey – 43.7 million
7. Mexico – 41.2 million
8. UK – 40.8 million
9. Germany – 40.2 million
10. Thailand – 37.3 million

For as much as inter-Asian travel has grown it’s interesting to see on China and Thailand in the top 10. For 2019 we expect to see US tourism down as a result of trade wars, shootings and visa difficulties. On the other end of the spectrum, we expect Thailand’s numbers to be up as they have been actively courting regional tourism.

The world’s busiest places are countries which do very well off of global tourism.