According to the ministry of economy, Georgia is the leading country when it comes to the ratio of tourists vs citizens.
“Every year, the amount of tourist arrivals exceeds the population of the country two times. With this indicator, we are already a leader across the world and ahead of us are only a few countries such as Croatia. Based on tourist arrivals vs the population ratio, we are ahead of Italy as well as France” – stated the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Giorgi Kobulia during the International meeting forum.
Forbes became interested as to which countries have more visitors than the population of the country itself and what position Georgia holds on this list.
The list of countries with the most tourists per head of population is published every year by Intrepid.
Croatia is on top of the list, which in 2016 had 57,587,000 international visitors. The country’s population is 4,170,600, which means that Croatia has 1380% more international visitors than its own citizens – approximately 14 international visitors per citizen.
The top ten of the list are as follows:
Croatia – 57,587,000 international visitors 4,170,600 local – 1380.78%
Iceland – 1,891,000 international visitors 334,250 local – 565.74%
Hungary – 52,890,000 international visitors 9,817,960 local – 538.71%
Denmark – 28,692,000 international visitors 5,731,120 local – 500.64%
France – 202,930,000 international visitors 66,896,110 local – 303.35%
Czech Republic – 30,915,000 international visitors 10,561,630 Local – 292.71%
Singapore – 16,404,000 international visitors 5,607,280 local – 292.55%
Cyprus – 3,286,000 international visitors, 1,170,130 local – 280.82%
Greece – 28,071,000 international visitors, 10,746,740 local – 261.20%
Spain – 115,561,000 international visitors, 46,443,960 local – 248.82%
The rating does not calculate data from every country around the world, however, if we take Georgia’s data, we will see that last year the country received 204% more international visitors (1,554,936) than local citizens. However, the number of visitors who spent more than 24 hours in the country was 3,478,932, which is less than Georgia’s population (3.7 million).
Similar information can be found in the research prepared by the World Bank, according to which on average there are 1.4 international visitors per citizen. Based on the latest data by the World Bank, which looks at 2014 (during this year Georgia received 5,493,492 international visitor), Georgia came in 37th on the list. In this rating, Andorra is in first place with 33 international visitors per head of local citizens. In second place is Macao – 24.7 international visitors per citizen, and in the top three is Virgin Islands with 12.8 visitor per citizen.
According to the UNWITO research, we can look at which countries have more visitors than its citizens and not only international visitors.
Croatia – in2017 15.5 million tourists visited Croatia, which is 3.7 times more than the population.
Iceland – in 2017 2.2 million tourists visited Iceland, which is 6.5 times more than its population.
Hungary – in 2017 15.7 million tourists visited the country, which is 1.6 times more than its population.
Denmark – in 2016 10.7 million tourists visited the country, which is 1.8 times more than its population.
France – Last year 86 million tourists visited the country, which is 0.7 times more than its population.
