EU countries by international tourist arrivals

France had the highest international tourist arrivals of 15 EU countries in 2016, at 82.68 million. Latvia had the lowest, at 1.79 million. The median was 10.78 million. Source: the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

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Highest82,682,174France
Lowest1,793,306Latvia
Median10,781,24915 EU countries

Map of EU countries, 2016

Czechia: 12,807,591 countDenmark: 10,781,249 countEstonia: 3,130,886 countSpain: 75,315,008 countFinland: 4,599,000 countFrance: 82,682,174 countHungary: 13,474,000 countIreland: 8,425,000 countItaly: 52,372,326 countLithuania: 2,295,900 countLatvia: 1,793,306 countMalta: 1,965,928 countPoland: 17,471,000 countPortugal: 18,213,800 countSlovakia: 5,734,113 count
  • Under 3M
  • 3M to 7.3M
  • 7.3M to 13M
  • 13M to 25M
  • 25M and over
  • No data
count, 2016. 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 EU countries, 2016

France: 82,682,174 countFrance82,682,174Spain: 75,315,008 countSpain75,315,008Italy: 52,372,326 countItaly52,372,326Portugal: 18,213,800 countPortugal18,213,800Poland: 17,471,000 countPoland17,471,000Hungary: 13,474,000 countHungary13,474,000Czechia: 12,807,591 countCzechia12,807,591Denmark: 10,781,249 countDenmark10,781,249Ireland: 8,425,000 countIreland8,425,000Slovakia: 5,734,113 countSlovakia5,734,113Finland: 4,599,000 countFinland4,599,000Estonia: 3,130,886 countEstonia3,130,886Lithuania: 2,295,900 countLithuania2,295,900Malta: 1,965,928 countMalta1,965,928Latvia: 1,793,306 countLatvia1,793,306France: 82,682,174 countFrance82,682,174Spain: 75,315,008 countSpain75,315,008Italy: 52,372,326 countItaly52,372,326Portugal: 18,213,800 countPortugal18,213,800Poland: 17,471,000 countPoland17,471,000Hungary: 13,474,000 countHungary13,474,000Czechia: 12,807,591 countCzechia12,807,591Denmark: 10,781,249 countDenmark10,781,249Ireland: 8,425,000 countIreland8,425,000Slovakia: 5,734,113 countSlovakia5,734,113Finland: 4,599,000 countFinland4,599,000Estonia: 3,130,886 countEstonia3,130,886Lithuania: 2,295,900 countLithuania2,295,900Malta: 1,965,928 countMalta1,965,928Latvia: 1,793,306 countLatvia1,793,306
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

RankEU countries2016
count
Change on 2015
1France82,682,174-2.1%
2Spain75,315,008+10.5%
3Italy52,372,326+3.2%
4Portugal18,213,800n/a
5Poland17,471,000+4.4%
6Hungary13,474,000+8.6%
7Czechia12,807,591+10.2%
8Denmark Series break10,781,249+3.4%
9Ireland8,425,000+8.8%
10Slovakia5,734,113+17.8%
11Finland4,599,000-5.3%
12Estonia3,130,886+5.7%
13Lithuania2,295,900+10.8%
14Malta1,965,928+10.2%
15Latvia1,793,306-11.4%

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 EU countries are compared on one definition. 1 EU countries with data in other periods have no value for 2016 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) (EU countries by international tourist arrivals, 2016) [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), EU countries by international tourist arrivals, 2016. 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/eu-countries?period=2016. 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). EU countries by international tourist arrivals, 2016. 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/eu-countries?period=2016.

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), EU countries by international tourist arrivals, 2016 [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/eu-countries?period=2016 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX
@misc{organisation_eu_countries_by_international_2016,
  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): EU countries by international tourist arrivals, 2016}},
  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/eu-countries?period=2016. 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): EU countries by international tourist arrivals, 2016
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/eu-countries?period=2016
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/international-tourists/eu-countries?period=2016.
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 EU country has the highest international tourist arrivals?

France, with 82.68 million in 2016, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Which EU country has the lowest international tourist arrivals?

Latvia, with 1.79 million in 2016.

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. 1 EU countries have no value for 2016 and are not ranked.

International tourist arrivals: other rankings

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