Arrivals of tourists from abroad

Description: Number of trips by visitors who arrive from abroad and stay overnight.
Data source: UN Tourism (2025) – processed by Our World in Data
Unit: arrivals
Date range: 1995-2024
Last updated: 2026-01-21
Next expected update: 2027-01-21
Managed by: Tuna Acisu

Each trip by the same person is counted separately.
When an individual visits a country multiple times within a year, each visit is counted as a separate arrival.
Similarly, if a person travels to multiple countries during a single trip, their arrival in each country is recorded individually.

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As a result, the number of arrivals does not necessarily reflect the number of individuals traveling, as one person can generate multiple arrivals.
Before 2006, the US counted same-day trips from Canada only. After 2006, day trips from Mexico were also included.

Frequently asked questions

How did Our World in Data process this data?

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

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Data sources

UN Tourism – UN Tourism Statistics Database

UN World Tourism Organization collects data from countries through annual questionnaires that follow the International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics (IRTS 2008) standard, a framework approved by the United Nations. The data covers various aspects of tourism, such as inbound tourism (including arrivals by region, main purpose, and mode of transport, as well as accommodation and tourism expenditure in the country), domestic tourism (including trips and accommodation), outbound tourism (including departures and tourism expenditure in other countries), tourism industries (such as accommodation in hotels and similar establishments), and employment (including the number of employees in tourism industries).

Retrieved on

January 21, 2026

Retrieved from

https://www.untourism.int/tourism-statistics/tourism-statistics-database

Citation

This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data.

"World Tourism Organization (2025). UN Tourism Statistics Database, Madrid. Data updated on 23 December 2025. More information: https://www.untourism.int/tourism-statistics/tourism-statistics-database"

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How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Arrivals of tourists from abroad”, part of the following publication: Bastian Herre and Veronika Samborska (2023) - “Tourism”. Data adapted from UN Tourism. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261102-112946/grapher/international-tourist-trips.html [online resource] (archived on November 2, 2026).

How to cite this data

If you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

UN Tourism (2025) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

UN Tourism (2025) – processed by Our World in Data. “Arrivals of tourists from abroad” [dataset]. UN Tourism, “UN Tourism Statistics Database” [original data]. Retrieved November 2, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261102-112946/grapher/international-tourist-trips.html (archived on November 2, 2026).

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