Countries by international tourist arrivals

France had the highest international tourist arrivals of 33 countries in 2012, at 81.98 million. Iceland had the lowest, at 672,773. The median was 8.61 million. Source: the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Highest81,979,697France

Lowest672,773Iceland

Median8,607,00033 countries

Map of countries, 2012

Under 2.9M
2.9M to 5.8M
5.8M to 8.9M
8.9M to 14M
14M to 29M
29M and over
No data

count, 2012. Hatched areas have no value for this period. Source: OECD, OECD Inbound tourism: arrivals of non-resident overnight visitors (tourists), tourism demand surveys and frontier statistics (DSD_TOURISM_INTER@DF_INBOUND). Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain).

All countries, 2012

count. Source: OECD, OECD Inbound tourism: arrivals of non-resident overnight visitors (tourists), tourism demand surveys and frontier statistics (DSD_TOURISM_INTER@DF_INBOUND). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	Countries	2012 count	Change on 2011
1	France	81,979,697	+1.8%
2	United States	66,966,897	+5.5%
3	Spain	57,464,496	+2.3%
4	Italy	46,359,909	+0.5%
5	Türkiye	35,697,900	+3%
6	United Kingdom	30,410,942	+0.1%
7	Mexico	23,402,546	-0%
8	Thailand	22,353,903	+16.2%
9	Canada	16,344,013	+2%
10	Saudi Arabia	16,331,556	+15.2%
11	Poland	14,840,000	+11.2%
12	Sweden	12,372,124	+7%
13	Egypt	11,195,748	+17.9%
14	Czechia	10,122,941	+12.2%
15	Morocco	9,375,156	+0.4%
16	South Africa	9,188,000	+10.2%
17	Hungary	8,607,000	-0.4%
18	Denmark Estimated	8,525,657	+0.3%
19	Argentina	6,461,906	-3.2%
20	Slovakia	6,234,694	+4.6%
21	Ireland	6,035,000	+0.2%
22	Brazil	5,676,843	+4.5%
23	Finland	4,226,000	+0.8%
24	Chile	3,554,279	+13.3%
25	Estonia	2,957,372	+4.8%
26	Israel	2,885,900	+2.3%
27	Peru	2,845,623	+9.5%
28	New Zealand	2,473,440	-1.5%
29	Costa Rica	2,343,213	+6.9%
30	Lithuania	1,899,500	+7%
31	Malta	1,443,414	+2%
32	Latvia	1,435,400	-3.9%
33	Iceland	672,773	+18.9%

Other periods

About this ranking

Non-resident visitors who stay at least one night (tourists) arriving in the country. Spain and its regions: INE FRONTUR, by main destination region. Other countries, yearly: OECD inbound tourism table, from frontier statistics or visitor surveys.

Same-day visitors are not included; overnight and same-day visitors together are international_visitor_arrivals. The OECD series for Spain repeats FRONTUR. Countries count arrivals in different ways, so gaps between countries partly reflect method.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the countries are compared on one definition. 2 countries with data in other periods have no value for 2012 and are left out rather than filled from another source. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

OECD. OECD Inbound tourism: arrivals of non-resident overnight visitors (tourists), tourism demand surveys and frontier statistics (DSD_TOURISM_INTER@DF_INBOUND). https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_INTER%40DF_INBOUND&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU. Accessed 2026-10-12. Data reuse terms and downstream attribution: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/terms-conditions.html

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2026). OECD Inbound tourism: arrivals of non-resident overnight visitors (tourists), tourism demand surveys and frontier statistics (DSD_TOURISM_INTER@DF_INBOUND) (Countries by international tourist arrivals, 2012) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_INTER%40DF_INBOUND&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU

MLA 9

OECD Inbound tourism: arrivals of non-resident overnight visitors (tourists), tourism demand surveys and frontier statistics (DSD_TOURISM_INTER@DF_INBOUND), Countries by international tourist arrivals, 2012. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 12 Oct. 2026, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_INTER%40DF_INBOUND&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/international-tourists/countries?period=2012. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2026. OECD Inbound tourism: arrivals of non-resident overnight visitors (tourists), tourism demand surveys and frontier statistics (DSD_TOURISM_INTER@DF_INBOUND). Countries by international tourist arrivals, 2012. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_INTER%40DF_INBOUND&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/international-tourists/countries?period=2012.

Harvard

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2026) OECD Inbound tourism: arrivals of non-resident overnight visitors (tourists), tourism demand surveys and frontier statistics (DSD_TOURISM_INTER@DF_INBOUND), Countries by international tourist arrivals, 2012 [Dataset]. Available at: https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_INTER%40DF_INBOUND&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/international-tourists/countries?period=2012 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{organisation_countries_by_international_tourist_2012,
  author = {{Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development}},
  title = {{OECD Inbound tourism: arrivals of non-resident overnight visitors (tourists), tourism demand surveys and frontier statistics (DSD\_TOURISM\_INTER@DF\_INBOUND): Countries by international tourist arrivals, 2012}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_INTER%40DF_INBOUND&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/international-tourists/countries?period=2012. Publisher attribution: OECD. OECD Inbound tourism: arrivals of non-resident overnight visitors (tourists), tourism demand surveys and frontier statistics (DSD\_TOURISM\_INTER@DF\_INBOUND). https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ\&df[id]=DSD\_TOURISM\_INTER\%40DF\_INBOUND\&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU. Accessed 2026-10-12. Data reuse terms and downstream attribution: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/terms-conditions.html.},
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
TI  - OECD Inbound tourism: arrivals of non-resident overnight visitors (tourists), tourism demand surveys and frontier statistics (DSD_TOURISM_INTER@DF_INBOUND): Countries by international tourist arrivals, 2012
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/12
PB  - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_INTER%40DF_INBOUND&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/international-tourists/countries?period=2012
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/international-tourists/countries?period=2012.
N1  - Publisher attribution: OECD. OECD Inbound tourism: arrivals of non-resident overnight visitors (tourists), tourism demand surveys and frontier statistics (DSD_TOURISM_INTER@DF_INBOUND). https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_INTER%40DF_INBOUND&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU. Accessed 2026-10-12. Data reuse terms and downstream attribution: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/terms-conditions.html.
ER  -

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Questions

Which country has the highest international tourist arrivals?

France, with 81.98 million in 2012, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Which country has the lowest international tourist arrivals?

Iceland, with 672,773 in 2012.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Inbound tourism: arrivals of non-resident overnight visitors (tourists), tourism demand surveys and frontier statistics (DSD_TOURISM_INTER@DF_INBOUND). Retrieved 2026-10-12. 2 countries have no value for 2012 and are not ranked.