UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2011 reports Malaysia as 9th Most Visited Country

The United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) had recently released the latest 2011 Tourism Highlights report. One of the most interesting part highlighted in the report is the top ten (10) most visited countries by the number of international travelers. Worth making note that the result is absolutely no surprise to me as I have been to 7 out of the 10 countries listed in the report, which means they are truly popular!

Here are the top ten (10) most visited countries with the number of international travelers in year 2010:

1. France – 76.8 million
2.  United States – 59.7 million
3. China – 55.7 million
4. Spain – 52.7 million
5.  Italy – 43.6 million
6. United Kingdom – 28.1 million
7. Turkey – 27.0 million
8. Germany – 26.9 million
9.  Malaysia – 24.6 million
10.  Mexico – 22.4 million

As usual, most of them (6 out of 10) are European countries. I visited some cities of France, Spain, Italy, UK and Germany except Turkey. United States and Mexico are 2 popular countries in America but I haven’t been to any of them as the absence of direct long haul budget flights put me off.

Last year in 2010, there are 2 Asian countries received top 10 number of international visitors. Not surprisingly, China managed to outscore some other popular European destinations such as Spain, Italy and United Kingdom, to clinch the 3rd spot. It is widely believed that China would become the hot cake in tourism in near future with substantial increasing number of international travelers over the past years.

What actually surprised me is the 9th most visited country, Malaysia. Hooray! I did not know that while I’m traveling to Europe, many other European travelers are coming over to Malaysia! Belying its small size geographically if compared to most other top 10 countries (it is the smallest among other 10 except UK and Italy), Malaysia is receiving a very high number of international travelers arrival each year, almost as high as its own populations of 27 Million people. The reason being why can be witnessed through its vast and broad scope of travel attractions on offer, from architectural, cultural, geographical and warm weather. Read more on Malaysian Top 10 Places to Visit and other Malaysian travel highlights. 🙂 – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog

Check out the full version of UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2011 HERE

Also check out the latest June edition of UNWTO World Tourism Barometer HERE

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.