While the image of the United States has taken a hit recently—a new Pew report showed a significant decline in approval of the U.S. worldwide—and U.S. share of global international tourism has declined over the past decade, travelers and potential travelers still spend more money in the U.S. and want to visit the U.S. than they do any other country. Several just-released tables and an infographic based on figures provided by the World Tourism Organization make the point; as well, they show U.S. travel sellers that their individual products will do very well by configuring them into the U.S. brand, which remains a global favorite.
How to Read this above Map: This map shows the biggest international tourism receipts in 2017. Each country is sized to reflect the amount of tourism receipts. Countries appear bigger as their tourism receipts are higher; for example, the USA. Conversely, countries with small tourism receipts appear smaller; for example, Sudan.
Top International Destinations: Below are the world’s top countries for tourism, based on total money spent. The United States occupies the number one ranking, with $210.7 billion spent by 74.7 million tourists, or roughly $2,819 per person in 2017. Spain ($68 billion) and France ($61 billion) come in at number two and number three.
Dollars per Visitor: If one takes the sum of international tourist receipts and divides it by the number of visitors for each country, we also see another interesting measure: dollars spent per visitor.
For a country like Australia, the figure is not only massive, but it’s also quite remote for many visitors, meaning that tourists get their fill on their trips. Tourists to a destination like Australia are rarely popping in for an overnighter, and are more likely to spend extended periods of time on vacation.
Topping this list are places that are hard to reach for many visitors (New Zealand or Israel, for example), as well as more expensive destinations (Luxembourg).
Macao, the gambling capital of the world, also makes the list – with many of those dollars likely being spent on games like roulette, blackjack, sic bo, and fan-tan.
For more information, visit the site on which the above information is explored further: http://www.visualcapitalist.com/map-worlds-top-countries-tourism/
