Where Tourists Outnumber Locals

The world’s busiest tourist destinations are not always the countries with the highest number of visitors per resident. In smaller nations, annual arrivals can exceed the local population many times over.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Gabriel Cohen, ranks the 25 countries with the highest number of international tourist arrivals per resident, using the latest available data from UN Tourism via Our World in Data and population figures from the World Bank. Territories have been excluded.

Andorra: The Tourist Playground

Andorra stands in a league of its own. The country welcomes roughly 4.2 million international visitors annually despite having only about 82,000 residents, resulting in 51 tourist arrivals per resident—more than five times Monaco’s second-place ratio.

Sandwiched in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, Andorra receives many visitors from its two larger neighbors. In recent years, the country has also attracted growing numbers of visitors from the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States.

Despite having no airport, Andorra has become a major tourist destination. Tourism accounts for roughly four-fifths of its economy.

Visitors are drawn to its ski resorts, spas, and mountain scenery, particularly around the capital, Andorra la Vella. The country’s long-standing duty-free status is another major attraction.

Island Nations Draw Millions

While Andorra is landlocked, many of the other countries near the top of the ranking are islands. Nations across the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific depend heavily on foreign visitors.

Malta, for example, welcomes 6.3 tourists for every resident, placing it just ahead of Iceland at 5.6.

The Bahamas leads the Caribbean at 4.7 tourists per resident, followed by Antigua and Barbuda at 3.5 and Barbados at 2.5. In the Indian Ocean, the Maldives and Seychelles receive 3.2 and 2.8 tourists per resident, respectively.

Larger Countries Also Make the List

The ranking is not limited to microstates and island nations. Portugal, Austria, and Croatia each have populations in the millions yet still receive more international tourists than residents each year.

Portugal welcomes 2.7 tourists per resident and has emerged as a major tourist destination. Visitors are drawn to historic cities such as Lisbon and Porto, along with the beaches of the Algarve.

Further east, Austria receives 2.9 tourists per resident, while Croatia receives 4.0. Their historic architecture, coastal scenery, and picturesque towns attract travelers from across Europe and beyond.

Wondering how these countries compare with the world’s most-visited destinations? Check out France is the Most Visited Country, With Over 100 Million Tourists per Year on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.