The tourism industry is gradually recovering its pre-pandemic levels, as international tourist arrivals worldwide have markedly increased.
According to a UN World Tourism Organization report, France, Spain, and the US have managed to keep their positions intact, meaning that these countries continue to be the most visited places among international tourists.
However, countries like China and Thailand have been severely affected by the pandemic, and consequently, the most visited countries in the world were mainly in Europe or the Americas.
According to the report, reasons for the countries’ changes in performance include the varying impacts of the health crisis per country, the travel restrictions policies put in place there, and the “inherent brand strength and resilience”’ of each destination.
More specifically, 79 million tourists visited France last year, down from 91 million in 2019. The number of visitors also dropped for tourists to Spain, as they fell by 14.2 percent (from 84 to 72 million), while the United States received 51 million visitors in 2022. In 2019, this figure stood at 79 million.
While China was the fourth most visited country in the world in 2019, it completely vanished from the top ten list in 2022, losing most of the 66 million visitors that it received in pre-pandemic levels. Similarly, Thailand was listed as the eighth most visited internationally, with 40 million visitors in 2019.
However, the situation worked to Turkiye’s advantage as the country was ranked as fourth most visited internationally, with 50 million visitors in 2019, while in 2019, the country was sixth most visited, with 51 million visitors. This means that Turkiye was the least affected country by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the difference in the number of visitors received is the lowest – only one million fewer visitors were recorded in the country in 2022 compared to the 2019 levels.
Italy also managed to retain its fifth position as the most visited country but with 15 million fewer visitors, down from 65 million recorded in 2019.
The list of most visited countries is further concluded with Mexico, which received 38 million visitors, down from 45 million in 2019. However, the Latin American country got ranked one position higher than it did in pre-pandemic times, making it the sixth most visited country in the world for 2022.
Similarly, the United Kingdom climbed a few positions in 2022, becoming the seventh most visited country, while in 2019, it was the last in the top ten countries, with 39 million visitors. In 2022, this figure dropped to 30 million visitors.
Germany, as the eighth most visited country for 2022, received 28 million visitors – down from 40 million that visited in 2019, while it ranked one position higher than in previous years.
While China and Thailand were off the top ten list for 2022, Greece and Austria entered, ranking as ninth and tenth most visited countries in the world for this year, respectively. They received 28 and 26 million visitors in 2022, respectively.
