According to a study put out by The World Bank, France is the world's most visited country. The land of The Louvre is the world's most visited country and the Eiffel tower is one of Frances' most popular tourist destinations, reported The Huffington Post.
The World Bank retrieved data from almost every country in the world looking at tourism numbers. "International inbound tourists (overnight visitors) are the number of tourists who travel to a country other than that in which they have their usual residence, but outside their usual environment, for a period not exceeding 12 months and whose main purpose in visiting is other than an activity remunerated from within the country visited.," reported The World Bank on its website. "When data on number of tourists are not available, the number of visitors, which includes tourists, same-day visitors, cruise passengers, and crew members, is shown instead."
The Huffington Post reported that in 2011 France had nearly 81.5 million visitors and the U.S. had 62.7 million visitors, coming in second. China, with approximately 57.6 million visitors came in third. The most recent data is actually from 2011 and 2012 data will not be available until next year.
"Sources and collection methods for arrivals differ across countries. In some cases data are from border statistics (police, immigration, and the like) and supplemented by border surveys," reported The World Bank about collection methods. "In other cases data are from tourism accommodation establishments. For some countries number of arrivals is limited to arrivals by air and for others to arrivals staying in hotels."
The World Bank was established in 1944 and is an important source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries worldwide.
"We are not a bank in the ordinary sense but a unique partnership to reduce poverty and support development. We comprise two institutions managed by 188 member countries: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). The IBRD aims to reduce poverty in middle-income and creditworthy poorer countries, while IDA focuses exclusively on the world's poorest countries. These institutions are part of a larger body known as theWorld Bank Group," reports The World Bank's website.
Here are the top ten most visited countries in the world according to The World Bank:
France
United States
China
Spain
Italy
Turkey
United Kingdom
Germany
Russian Federation
Malaysia
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