France is so much more than just the wine, the cheese, the pastries and the Eiffel Tower (though all those things are, obvs, pretty darn good). It also brags gorgeous coastlines, an outstanding art scene and brilliant cities, so no wonder it is, once again, the world’s most visited country.
READ MORE: The best places to visit in France in 2025
Data from the World Tourism Barometer from UN Tourism shows visitor numbers have returned to 99 percent of their pre-pandemic levels, with 1.4 billion of us travelling internationally in 2024 – 1.4 billion.
100 million of those were headed to France (and plenty of these would have been headed to the Summer 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games), which is a new record for the country, according to France 24.
Spain also broke its record, claiming second place with 94 million visitors (a 10 percent increase from 2023). In fact, we reported last year that it’s meant to overtake France by 2040, and we named five Spanish destinations in our best cities in the world ranking – France better be looking over its shoulder.
But, which other countries were the most visited in the world last year? Well, exact visitor numbers vary depending on where you look, but one thing’s clear: people love France.
Study International has provided a ranking, drawing on data from Data Pandas, so read on for a roundup of the 10 most visited counties in the world in 2024.
These are the 10 most visited countries in the world
- France
- Spain
- USA
- China
- Italy
- Türkiye
- Mexico
- Thailand
- Germany
- UK
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