The 51 destinations where tourists outnumber locals

Oliver Smith, Deputy Head of Travel 27 September 2017 • 9:30am

Andorra: one of 51 destinations where there are more tourists than locals Credit: AP

The world's most popular country? According to figures for 2016, the latest available from the UNWTO, it's France, with 82.6 million overseas visitors.

Second is the US, on 77.5m, third is Spain on 75.6m, while the UK comes seventh with 35.8m.

The world's most visited countries

France - 82.6m annual visitors (2016)
United States - 77.5m (2015)
Spain - 75.6m (2016)
China - 59.3m (2016)
Italy - 52.4m (2016)
Turkey - 39.5m (2015)
United Kingdom - 35.8m (2016)
Germany - 35.6m (2016)
Mexico - 35m (2016)
Thailand - 32.6m (2016)

Given the sheer size of France, the US, Spain, China, and others in the top 10, it's not suprising they lure so many travellers. But what happens when if take visitor numbers and divide them by a destination's population, to give the number of tourists per resident? As you'll see from the map below, which uses The World Bank's figures for overseas arrivals in 2014, the most recent year for which all nations returned figures, you get a very different set of results.

The tiny principality of Andorra tops the charts (you'll need to zoom in to see it). It welcomed 2.36m tourists in 2014, but just 70,000 people call it home. That works out at 33.5 tourists per resident.

Aruba has more annual tourists than residents Credit: getty

Macau, the gambling hub, comes second - with 24.8 tourists per resident, followed by a pair of Caribbean gems - the British Virgin Islands (12.8) and the Turks and Caicos Islands (10.4). In total, there are 51 destinations where tourists outnumber locals - and we've gone to the trouble of listing them all below.

The 51 destinations where tourists outnumber locals

Andorra - 33.53057199 annual tourists per resident
Macao - 24.78871897
British Virgin Islands - 12.81668161
Turks and Caicos Islands - 10.42546376
Aruba - 10.31870554
Monaco - 8.719620471
Northern Mariana Islands - 8.353005266
Guam - 7.905347735
Bahrain - 7.589107757
Saint Maarten - 7.142857143
Palau - 6.622516556
Cayman Islands - 6.386846099
US Virgin Islands - 5.812269488
Malta - 3.91808649
Hong Kong - 3.801141574
The Bahamas - 3.67765496
Bermuda - 3.433739557
Iceland - 3.01671891
Maldives - 2.945036575
Austria - 2.937027237
Curacao - 2.860035434
Croatia - 2.751394043
Antigua and Barbuda - 2.711886558
Seychelles - 2.508073197
San Marino - 2.35990057
Estonia - 2.224088756
Montenegro - 2.169064956
Singapore - 2.143449993
Cyprus - 2.094739552
Greece - 2.035619507
St. Kitts and Nevis - 2.033398114
Ireland - 1.899065723
Barbados - 1.833119293
St. Lucia - 1.827036903
Luxembourg - 1.822088345
Denmark - 1.808843619
Georgia - 1.499320468
Liechtenstein - 1.438810583
Spain - 1.400203011
Qatar - 1.264228724
Grenada - 1.254388018
France - 1.253839619
Hungary - 1.233152586
Slovenia - 1.16825147
Albania - 1.156388675
Slovak Republic - 1.149510052
Dominica - 1.114474408
Switzerland - 1.105107581
United Arab Emirates - 1.090973066
Bulgaria - 1.018530115
Czech Republic - 1.006234446

One country is glaringly absent, however. The Vatican City does not appear on The World Bank's database for 2014, so doesn't appear on our map, but it attracts around five million people each year and has a resident population of just 842. That's almost 6,000 tourists per citizen - putting it way out in front.