Can we agree that if someone visits the Vatican City they are also by default visiting St. Peter’s Square (Piazza San Pietro)and the Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina), so either of these will draw the same number of visitors as listed for the Vatican itself.
But I’ll fully admit my previous figure (listed from memory) seems very high compared to visitor figures from other places.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is only open from Easter week to the first weekend in November and as Aro says, there is no admssion fee.
So if you take Antonius Block’s figure of 6.3 million visitors to the Pleasure Beach, then the average is 26,000 people in there on any one day. And if none of them were in the queue for “The Big One” I still wouldn’t go on it!
This magic figure of 17 million visitors to the town of Blackpool has been trotted out for years. When I was a student I worked in Blackpool in the summer holidays selling candyfloss and icecream to the tourists and every year, according to the paper, there had ALWAYS been 17 million visitors, and we are talking up to 15 years ago.
I’d be interested to know how these figures are calculated - does anyone on here know?
Not to mention the one-off Kumbh Mela festival held in India in 2001. 25 million people attended - in one place at the same time. Quite the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen (on TV - wouldn’t go there if I was paid. India gave me agoraphobia as it is…).
** Aro ** - I apologise for the gruffness of my reply. However, I don’t agree. For instance, loads of old codgers pack into the piazza whatever-it’s-called to see JP-2 mumble on in Latin. Not all of these visit the Sistine Chapel. Probably some do, but for the repeat visitors - e.g. the Romans who go there probably 10 times a year - they probably only go in to take care of business…
Anyhoo… Notre Dame is still my European guess…
WAG:
Anyone visiting the Notre Dame will also visit the Tour Eiffel.
Anyone visiting the Houses of Parliament (London) will also visit e.g. Picadilly Circus (sp?).
Anyone visiting the German Reichtag will also have a look at the Brandenburger Tor.
I’m always also counting people who just have a look from the outside and don’t bother buying a ticket and entering a given atraction. I can’t give any exact numbers though…
** Nils ** - unless “WAG:” means I’m probably wrong, but I think that… , you’re wrong.
I have visited Notre Dame 11 times but I have only been up the Eiffel Tower twice, and I’m damn sure I’m not the only one. Don’t make ridiculously broad statements…
WAG means “Wild Ass Guess”.
Although there most probably is actually a correct answer to the OP in terms of actual numbers , I don’t think there really is a way to find it unless there is some verifiable data collected somewhere by an independent source. But as it is difficult to even define what a visitor is (someone who pays to go in, just looks from the outside, sees the building / attraction from afar etc…) then I fear no complete answer can be found, but just best guesses. Everything else is mere speculation and falls into the IMHO category.
Apology happily accepted, but was unnecessary Tarantula. No worries.
Shit - now I’ve got to apologose to NIls as well. Fuck this. I am sorry for being a jerk. I think I’m going to log off the SDMB until my brain and manners start working again.
Sorry all.
PS - mitigating fact No. 1 - I hit my head really hard this morning and I have felt groggy all day…
re: Niagara Falls
My understanding is that Niagara Falls is long past its heyday. Driving through the town seemed to confirm this; this is no longer the place for people to go on their honeymoons. Therefore, I’m somewhat suspicious of their claims of huge numbers of visitors. Sure, people still visit, but they may well be counting those who enter the US at the Niagara Falls border crossing, and are just passing through – not actually visiting the Falls as a tourist destination.
Tourist attraction or not, the Mall of America in Minnesota brings in twice the number of visitors per year than does Disney World. Estimates range from 30 - 35 million people per year visit the MOA.
This takes us back to definition of “tourist.” Many people go in to the MoA to shop not for tourist reasons but there is no good way to tell what everyone is up to. Disney World, on the other hand, has a fairly easy guideline on “tourist”—I assume that they don’t count delivery drivers and staff in their gate count.
That can’t be right as its contradictory. According to this site, http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/attend.html if you add up the provided figures for all four of Disney World’s theme parks, the total comes to 37.6 million visitors in 2002. That’s not even including the 2 active water parks, persons who attend specifically Downtown Disney or any of the various other services Disney provides. So assuming your MOA figure is accurate, no matter how you cut it, Disney World has more visitors.
Not only is it hard to define “visitors” or “tourists”, it’s sometimes hard to define the attraction, too. For instance: Does Yellowstone National Park count as an “attraction”? What about Old Faithful? And yes, there are people who go to the park without seeing Old Faithful.
Or with the Disney example: Is it proper to count all of Disney World together, or should the theme parks be counted separately? And even if you count them together as one attraction, you still can’t just add the totals together. What if a tourist spends the morning in Epcot, and the afternoon in the Universal Studios park? He’s bought two tickets, but he’s still only one visitor.
Not only is it hard to define “visitors” or “tourists”, it’s sometimes hard to define the attraction, too. For instance: Does Yellowstone National Park count as an “attraction”? What about Old Faithful? And yes, there are people who go to the park without seeing Old Faithful.
Or with the Disney example: Is it proper to count all of Disney World together, or should the theme parks be counted separately? And even if you count them together as one attraction, you still can’t just add the totals together. What if a tourist spends the morning in Epcot, and the afternoon in the Universal Studios park? He’s bought two tickets, but he’s still only one visitor.
You could apply that logic to every attraction in the world. Besides, my Disney example was only to be used in comparison to the MOA. I’d also like to add that I’d wager people spend more time at DW than MOA.
I don’t think any of the suggestions so far apply currently - although I have no figures to back that up. NZ has been listed as a top tourist destination because it is currently being seen as a safe place to visit.
Mecca is hardly a tourist attraction, people are going for religious purposes (baring a few westerners who do go as tourists).
Sure, and Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport… handled 76.8 million passengers (in 2002). That still doesn’t make it (or the Mall of America) a tourist attraction.
What? You don’t think that Walt Disney World, with 37.6 million visitors in 2002 (according to skaterboarder87’s cite), or Notre Dame in Paris, with 12 million, are in the top 10 worldwide? Or don’t you count them as “tourist attractions”?
NZ is a growing tourist destination:
but that’s still a low number by world standards.
In any case, New Zealand is a country, which makes it specifically disallowed by the OP.
Looking at some places within NZ, we find:
- The Christchurch Arts Centre (1.5 million each year)
- Rotorua (1.3 million each year).
Impressive though these numbers are for a country with , they aren’t going to crack the top 10 worldwide.
Bad mouse! Clicking submit instead of preview…
The last sentence in the above post should read:
Impressive though these numbers are for a country with a population of 4 million, they aren’t going to crack the top 10 worldwide.
Sneer much? :rolleyes: