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Posted on 11. Feb, 2008 by Kerry Banks in Destinations

A friend of mine recently asked me if I could name the top tourist destination in the world. I had to admit that I didn’t know. A few possibilities came to mind: the Eiffel Tower, the Vatican, Disneyland. But these were merely guesses. So, I did a little online sleuthing and found that Forbes Traveler magazine tried to determine an answer to this very question a year ago. It compiled a ranking of the top 50 visited tourist attractions in the world. The results are quite surprising.

A number of famous cultural sites, such as England’s Stonehenge, Florence’s Uffizi Gallery and Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, did not even make the list, while India’s Taj Mahal barely squeezed in at No. 50.

Instead, it is somewhat disappointing to discover that amusement and theme parks constitute the world’s dominant attractions, with 16 of them rated in the top 35, including all five Disney theme parks (Orlando, Paris, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Hong Kong) and the three Universal studios (Orlando, Osaka and Los Angeles).

Thirteen different countries are represented on the Forbes Traveler list, with the U.S. home to 20 of the locations, followed by France and Britain with seven each. Paris boasted seven major tourist draws, the most from any one city.

It’s worth noting that Forbes excluded religious pilgrimage sites, such as Mecca, from its list. However, some religious sites, such as Notre Dame Cathedral and the Vatican, were included for their cultural significance. The survey also ignored shopping malls. The notion that a shopping mall might even rank in the top 50 is pretty astounding. But, in fact, if the list had included them, then the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, would rank No. 1. This monstrous shrine to consumerism attracted 40 million goggle-eyed visitors in 2006.

Here’s the top 10 and the number of annual visitors:

1. Times Square, New York (35 million)
2. National Mall and Monuments, Washington, D.C. (25 million)
3. Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (16.6 million)
4. Trafalgar Square, London (15 million)
5. Disneyland, Los Angeles (14.7 million)
6. Niagara Falls, Canada/U.S. (14 million)
7. Fisherman’s Wharf/Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco (13 million)
8. Disneyland Resort, Tokyo (12.9 million)
9. Notre Dame, Paris (12 million)
10. Disneyland Park, Paris (9.2 million)

Given the dominance of American attractions in the top 10, one might question the accuracy of the rankings. Still, it’s true that Americans have the cash to travel and love to gawk at their own landmarks. Considering it’s meagre range of attractions, the placing of Times Square at No. 1 puzzles me. But, then again, I went there several years ago when it was basically a sleaze pit.

For those who are curious, here are the popularity scores for some other prominent world icons. The Great Wall of China was 11th with about 10 million annual visitors; the Musee du Louvre in Paris was 15th with 7.5 miilion visitors; The Eiffel Tower was 18th with 6.7 million visitors; The Grand Canyon was 31st with 4.4 million visitors; The Vatican was 37th with 4.2 million visitors; the Sydney Opera House was 38th with 4 million visitors; while Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza was 47th with 3 million visitors.

The complete list can be viewed at Forbes Travel

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