According to the UNWTO (World Tourism Organization) statistical report, the 10 countries with the highest foreign tourism revenue account for 50% of the expenditure worldwide. In terms of visitors, the 10 countries that receive the most foreign arrivals account for 40% of all trips.
The U.S., Spain, France, Thailand, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Germany, Japan, and China, in this order, are the 10 countries with the highest revenues generated by international tourism.
The statistical report of the World Tourism Organization puts the United States in the lead, with the country recording over 215 billion USD generated by tourism. If one takes into account that this figure is linked to the 80 million visitors that entered the U.S. in 2018, the average of $2,687 per visitor per stay far exceeds that of any other country.
France, third on ranking by revenues and the number one destination chosen by tourists (with more than 89 million arrivals), shows an average expenditure of $752. Meanwhile, Spain, ranked second in both arrivals and revenues, has an average of $891 per person per stay, according to UNWTO statistics.
One possible explanation is that beyond the summer season - that already registers above-average stays in Spain - Europe works as a multi-destination for extra-regional markets, with short stays in each country, while the US can be classified as a “multi-destination” in itself.
The 10 countries with the most tourists receive a total of 577 million visitors, roughly 40% of the world arrivals according to the UNWTO.
In these top 10 destinations with most arrivals in 2018, Mexico was ranked seventh, with 41 million visitors. Despite this, the country did not enter the list of countries with the highest foreign tourism revenue. Mexico and Turkey, two of the most visited countries of that year, did not record enough revenues to enter the top 10 and are replaced by Australia and Japan.
In fact, Japan and China - with 41 and 40 billion USD, respectively - take the last two spots of the highest revenues list.