Top Travel Destinations and Most Visited Places of 2016

Since it’s summer, it’s a good time to look at the world’s top travel destinations. Of course, there are a lot of ways to look at what might be considered a “top destination,” and below are several rankings that look at destinations around the world in terms of different metrics. For example, one ranking shows self-reports of tourist favourites, another shows specific sites in terms of popularity, and yet another shows the hard numbers, looking at how many visitors stayed overnight inside the country’s borders. Whatever you consider to indicate a “top” destination, the rankings are below.

Top Destinations

This list is what Trip Advisor called the “top 25 destinations” — a general ranking for popular cities.

• #1: London, UK
• #2: Istanbul, Turkey
• #3: Marrakech, Morocco
• #4: Paris, France
• #5: Siem Reap, Cambodia
• #6: Prague, Czech Republic
• #7: Rome, Italy
• #8: Hanoi, Vietnam
• #9: New York City, USA
• #10: Ubud, Indonesia
• #11: Barcelona, Spain
• #12: Lisbon, Portugal
• #13: Dubai, UAE
• #14: St. Petersburg, Russia
• #15: Bangkok, Thailand
• #16: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• #17: Buenos Aires, Argentina
• #18: Hong Kong
• #19: Playa del Carmen, Mexico
• #20: Cape Town, South Africa
• #21: Tokyo, Japan
• #22: Cusco, Peru
• #23: Kathmandu, Nepal
• #24: Sydney, Australia
• #25: Budapest, Hungary

“Travellers’ Favourites” List

This list refers to what travellers reported as their favourite places to visit. This is naturally completely subjective, but it is still valuable to see the results of aggregated self-reports.

1. Marrakech, Morocco
2. Siem Reap, Cambodia
3. Istanbul, Turkey
4. Hanoi, Vietnam
5. Prague, Czech Republic
6. London, United Kingdom
7. Rome, Italy
8. Buenos Aires, Argentina
9. Paris, France
10. Cape Town, South Africa
11. New York City, New York
12. Zermatt, Switzerland
13. Barcelona, Spain
14. Goreme, Turkey
15. Ubud, Indonesia
16. Cusco, Peru
17. St. Petersburg, Russia
18. Bangkok, Thailand
19. Kathmandu, Nepal
20. Athens, Greece
21. Budapest, Hungary
22. Queenstown, New Zealand
23. Hong Kong
24. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
25. Sydney, Australia

Best Sites to See

Rather than a simple “top city” or “top country” ranking, this one looks at specific sites, which may give you a tiny flavour of what these locations have to offer.

1. Angkor Wat — Siem Reap, Cambodia
2. Machu Picchu — Machu Picchi, Peru
3. Taj Mahal — Agra, India
4. Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque– Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
5. Basilica of the Sagrada Familia — Barcelona, Spain
6. St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Italy
7. Milan Cathedral (Duomo) — Milian, Italy
8. Alcatraz — San Francisco, California
9. Corcovado — Cristo Redentor — Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
10. Golden Gate Bridge — San Francisco, California
11. Eiffel Tower — Paris, France
12. Church of the Saviour on Blood — St. Petersburg, Russia
13. Notre Dame Cathedral — Paris, France
14. The Alhambra — Granada, Spain
15. Hagia Sophia Museum and Church (Ayasofya) — Istanbul, Turkey
16. Charles Bridge (Karluv Most) — Prague, Czech Republic
17. Great Wall at Mutianyu — Beijing, China
18. Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool — Washington DC, District of Columbia
19. Burj Khalifa — Dubai, United Arab Emirates
20. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum — New York City, New York
21. Temple of the Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho) — Bangkok, Thailand
22. Chichen Itza — Chicken Itza, Mexico
23. Sydney Opera House — Sydney, Australia
24. Petronas Twin Towers — Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
25. Panama Canal — Panama City, Panama

Most Visited Countries

Here’s a list that looks at the most popular cities, in terms of how many million visitors stayed overnight this year. The nice thing about this list is that it eliminates the subjectivity — it is a ranking based on facts. It appears that Japan and Italy (and China, if you include Hong Kong as part of China) are the only countries with two cities in the top 20.

1. Bangkok, Thailand (21.47 million visitors)
2. London, England (19.88 million visitors)
3. Paris, France (18.03 million visitors)
4. Dubai, United Arab Emirates (15.27 million visitors)
5. New York City, USA (12.75 million visitors)
6. Singapore (12.11 million visitors)
7. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (12.02 million visitors)
8. Istanbul, Turkey (11.95 million visitors)
9. Tokyo, Japan (11.7 million visitors)
10. Seoul, Korea (10.2 million visitors)
11. Hong Kong (8.37 million visitors)
12. Barcelona, Spain (8.2 million visitors)
13. Amsterdam, the Netherlands (8 million visitors)
14. Milan, Italy (7.65 million visitors)
15. Taipei, Taiwan (7.35 million visitors)
16. Rome, Italy (7.12 million visitors)
17. Osaka, Japan (7.02 million visitors)
18. Vienna, Austria (6.69 million visitors)
19. Shanghai, China (6.12 million visitors)
20. Prague, Czech Republic (5.81 million visitors)