Saudi Arabia??? But tourist visas are all-but-impossible to obtain to visit there. I wonder if religious pilgrimages to Mecca are counted as "tourism" in these statistics?
I was always under the impression that a tourist was anyone who visited a country for less than a year. Anyone who stayed longer was considered an immigrant. But I don't know where I got those term definitions from.
Pilgrims are still visitors/tourists to the country, so of course with Mecca being in Saudi I knew they'd be included in this list ...doesn't matter what the reason is for these ppl visiting
Visitors, okay. Tourists? I think not. I made it clear that this was an opinion. And I think it matters a lot. Is a businessman attending a meeting a tourist? Is someone commuting to work a tourist? Is a reporter doing an investigative report from another country a tourist? Is a soldier invading a country a tourist? There are many reasons that you could go to another country that don't fall under "tourism." Fulfilling a religious obligation with strictly prescribed ritualized things to do and places to go to is, in my opinion, definitely one of those reasons.
Saudi doesn't even issue tourist visas. There are hajj visas, umrah visas (both pilgrimage), transit visas, business visas, work visas, family visit visas... but tourism visas are not a thing in Saudi Arabia.
Invading involves attacking people and areas with weapons to take control...visiting involves peacefully exploring the country's culture, landmarks, food, shops, etc...not exactly the same thing XD
Tourists in lets say wider sense include all temporary visitors (I'm sure there's a nice definition by WTO that excludes the military) - tourists, travellers, businessmen, pilgrims, shoppers, health treatment, family visits etc. The limit between them is not so clear as the "non-tourists" would sometimes like to claim. Maybe you go on business trip to discuss contracts, visit factories, negotiate etc, but you may also go to sauna, play golf, fine dining etc. Or you're a pilgrim to Rome, Jerusalem, Lourdes or on foot to Santiago, but besides prayer and mediation you go sightseeing, buy souvenirs, take selfies etc. I have similar issues with pretentious backpackers ...
There is nothing in the Christian religion like the duty for hajj in Islam. It's different. "Pilgrims" going to visit the Vatican are not similar to Muslims going to circumambulate the kabaa, IMO. And actually if you go on hajj or umrah visa usually you are not technically allowed to visit other areas of the country besides Jeddah (the port of arrival) and Mecca.
I agreed that either the quiz should be changed to "visitors" or Saudi Arabia should be removed. If a country doesn't even issue tourist visas, how can they have tourists?
Okay, as a muslim, I once again feel the need to insert the clarifying caveat that Umrahs and the Hajj are not equivalent. Hajj is compulsory. Umrahs are voluntary, short trips to Mecca to perform certain rituals and prayers. Yes, they are technically pilgrimages, but are just the same as trips to Santiago, the Vatican, or Jerusalem. I consider an Umrah visa a touritst visa, by the general definition. The Hajj one, admittedly, I would not.
In any case, the Saudi government recently overhauled their whole system and are now issuing tourist visas and widely advertising to the western countries.
I know Turkey is mostly in Asia, but I didn't type it in as an answer, because Turkey is considered to be a European country. So, why is it on the list?
Turkey is a transcontinental country so it's both European and Asian...whether or not the quizmaker wanted to include them in this quiz was up to him/her
Speak for yourself, if it's a transcontinental country then it is technically semi-European and that is how I view them as well...go argue with the UN if you disagree XD
If you subscribe to purely cultural boundaries, then yes, Turkey is entirely Asian, but if you subscribe to geographic boundaries, then Turkey has land in both Asia and Europe, and, significantly, Istanbul is in Europe. "Continents" are terms of convenience and organization. Why is Panama considered North American while Colombia is South American? There's no real reason. So I think it's a mistake to categorize continents in absolute terms. Many people think part of Turkey is in Europe.
I'm a bit skeptical about Turkey. Turkey qualifies because most of the country is in Asia, so all visitors to the country count, including the European part of Turkey. There's nothing that can be done about it -- I assume there are no statistics for people who went to Turkey but didn't go to Istanbul, for instance -- but it somehow doesn't feel right to include tourists who went to Europe in a quiz for tourists of non-European countries.
A very large percentage of Turkey's visitors go to Antalya. The rest mostly go to Istanbul with small numbers visiting Ankara and other cities. Istanbul straddles Europe and Asia. It would be unusual I think to only visit the European side... though that is where the airport and most of the tourist attractions are.
@sumguy. Turkey definitely makes the list. They have 39.8 million tourists. I am 100% certain that at least 6.87 million of those tourists go to the Asian part.
On the flip side, I guessed Russia since part of it is in Asia (just in case) and I guessed Turkey because it is in both Europe and Asia. I've gotten so many right throughout many questions just by typing the answers that I didn't think it could possibly be but wasn't getting the right answers otherwise.
Very surprised not one South American country made the list. Just curious where Brazil places? I assume Brazil has the most international visitors in South America.
In fact, Argentina has more! Only in 2014 and 2016 Brazil received more tourist because of the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. Argentina receives more over than a million people per year than Brazil.
The major source countries for tourists include the USA, Canada, many countries in Western Europe, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Turkey, and some countries around the Persian Gulf. South America is just so far away from all of these countries. I think that's the major obstacle. Could also have something to do with out of control crime, but more likely it's just a question of geography.
South Africa's decimal point was accidentally moved. According to the source it should be 10.04 instead of 10.4. Morocco being at 10.3 and on top is correct
Egypt used to be the #1 tourist destination in Africa ahead of Morocco and South Africa but it still hasn't recovered from the hit its tourism industry took following the 2010 revolution and subsequent turmoil. Russia's ban of flights going there also didn't help. A very large percentage of the tourists visiting beach resorts on the Sinai were Russian.
Commenting on this topic for the second time today, but I feel something in the instructions should clearly exclude Turkey. I'm fine with it not being classed as a European country - 97% of its territory is outside Europe and 86% of its population - but it definitely caught me out. Especially given that a significant portion of those tourists would be visiting Istanbul - in Europe.
Pretty sure you are wrong, but, I don't feel like taking the time to read through the source linked above to find out if you actually are basing this on something or not, since most likely neither did you, and most likely I would have before leaving the first comment.
That is not and never has been my stance. Are you this angry, obnoxious, and unpleasant in real life, too? Is that what has led to you leading perhaps an empty, lonely existence, lashing out at strangers online almost constantly, as you have been doing, repeatedly, literally for years, presumably because I said something you disagreed with once or a couple of times 5-10 years ago?
I forgot that this quiz excluded European countries. Though the source it draws its data from does not, and does, of course, count traveling between them as international travel. Being "pretty sure" of something isn't the sort of thing a person says who believes they are always right and everyone else is always wrong.
I'm "pretty sure" that what I said about what led to this exchange (and literally dozens if not hundreds of others you have initiated around the site) is probably accurate. Please take some time to reconsider your life choices and reflect on if different ones could make you happier.
Probably because Turkey is closer to a lot of first-world countries and all. Mexico has USA, but i get the idea the average yank would rather vacation on the UK, France Caribean and Canada rather than Mexico
Depends on what counts as a tourist. If they're counting people who go to KSA because of the Hajj, then yeah. It's definitely going to be way up on that list, way way higher than Brazil.
These numbers don't seem honest. Maybe a lot of this is people returning from working abroad.
Statista- Morocco tourist arrivals seem to be foreign Moroccans(?) at 65%, French nationals 13%, and Spain 2.7% - though I think this is post-Covid. Wiki doesn't list the numbers.. but says "[2016] 30% of the tourists were one of the 3.8 million Moroccans living abroad."
Statista: "2022, 2.2m inbound tourists to Saudi Arabia came from Bahrain, the origin country that sourced the highest number of tourists to Saudi Arabia. In contrast, inbound tourists from Iraq amounted to 0.5m people that year."
Indonesia- primarily Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, China, East timor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Indonesia
Thailand- China 10m, Malaysia 4.2m, India 2m, SK 1.9m, Laos, Jap, Rus, US, Singapore 1m
Japan- China 10m, ROK 5.6, Taiwan 4.9, Hong Kong 2.3, US 1.7, Thai 1.3, Aus 0.6
SA- Zimbabwe, Les, Moz, Esw
Probably not a good indicator of hidden gems for "tourists" in the true sense
Wow who would've thought that the majority of people who visit these countries live in nearby countries. Why are you looking for "hidden gems" in whatever the heck the "true sense" is? It's a JetPunk quiz not a BuzzFeed article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Saudi_Arabia#Religious_tourism
In any case, the Saudi government recently overhauled their whole system and are now issuing tourist visas and widely advertising to the western countries.
I'm pretty sure the US numbers do not include people flying from Puerto Rico to the continental states. Two weights and two measures?
"Name the non-European countries that receive the most international tourists"
I forgot that this quiz excluded European countries. Though the source it draws its data from does not, and does, of course, count traveling between them as international travel. Being "pretty sure" of something isn't the sort of thing a person says who believes they are always right and everyone else is always wrong.
I'm "pretty sure" that what I said about what led to this exchange (and literally dozens if not hundreds of others you have initiated around the site) is probably accurate. Please take some time to reconsider your life choices and reflect on if different ones could make you happier.
Anyways, got them all!
Statista- Morocco tourist arrivals seem to be foreign Moroccans(?) at 65%, French nationals 13%, and Spain 2.7% - though I think this is post-Covid. Wiki doesn't list the numbers.. but says "[2016] 30% of the tourists were one of the 3.8 million Moroccans living abroad."
Statista: "2022, 2.2m inbound tourists to Saudi Arabia came from Bahrain, the origin country that sourced the highest number of tourists to Saudi Arabia. In contrast, inbound tourists from Iraq amounted to 0.5m people that year."
Indonesia- primarily Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, China, East timor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Indonesia
Thailand- China 10m, Malaysia 4.2m, India 2m, SK 1.9m, Laos, Jap, Rus, US, Singapore 1m
Japan- China 10m, ROK 5.6, Taiwan 4.9, Hong Kong 2.3, US 1.7, Thai 1.3, Aus 0.6
SA- Zimbabwe, Les, Moz, Esw
Probably not a good indicator of hidden gems for "tourists" in the true sense