World Capitals with the Most International Tourists

Saudis mostly, it's the weekend retreat

Saudi Arabians over the King Fahd Causeway. Keep in mind that it beats so many other capitals because this only includes international tourists. Since its only tourists, for the most part, are international, and its proximity and accessibility to Saudi Arabia is perfect, it's not a big surprise! (10.4 million tourists visit Bahrain in total)

Not surprising at all. You can watch a movie, get a drink, talk to a girl, bed beautiful Russian and Moroccan prostitutes (or ugly Chinese ones, if you prefer), listen to music, eat pork, and drive a car (if you are female) in Bahrain... all without worrying about going to jail for it. Something you can't do in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Though I agree measuring only "international" tourists is a really silly way of factoring. As if driving one hour across the King Fahd Causeway... or taking the train from Budapest to Prague where there aren't even any international borders or passport controls... is somehow more significant than a family from Shenzhen making the trek to Beijing, or someone from Vancouver traveling to Ottawa. It reveals a very distorted picture of the number of tourists some of these cities receive looking at it this way. The entire country of Bahrain is smaller than the city of Riyadh and Saudis do not need a passport to go there.

IDK

In this type of general tourism statistics all tourists are lumped together - leisure, business, congress, pilgrims, health treatment etc.

There's no country close enough to DC to contribute large number of visitors, and it's not that popular for overseas visitors. So many people just stay in NYC.

Manama is flooded with tourists. Unless getting drunk and throwing flowers and women dancing in their underwear counts as a business meeting. Taipei maybe. I don't know. I think many Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans go there to shop...

As an American, I have to imagine DC is not very interesting to foreigners. It's (kind of) interesting to Americans because of its many tributes to American history (the memorials, Smithsonian, and the government buildings, etc.), but DC is the capital for its location, not for its rich culture and historical significance. Older countries tend to have capitals that are also the cultural centers of their respective countries (Rome, Paris, Athens, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima, Tokyo, Cairo), so the capital is the most important city. DC ranks behind New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia in terms of general interest and actual historical significance, I think. You could probably throw a few other cities ahead of it too, but I think those four are unarguably more interesting than anything going on in DC from a tourism standpoint.

Because of the big undervaluation of DC as a tourist destination I mentioned above.. most international tourists don't even consider going there. Many Americans don't, either. I think they receive about 10-12 million tourists a year, but the main centers of American tourism, New York City and Orlando, each entertain more than 50 million per year. Most international tourists to the United States visit New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Honolulu, or other more high-profile cities. The USA is a big place and therefore far away from most other countries. If all of Europe (roughly the same size and population) was considered a single country, almost none of these European cities would make the cut. When travelers come to the USA from overseas they are flying 8 or more hours to get there. They want to visit famous places like New York or California. And then they go home and think they've seen everything the USA has to offer. Few return for Washington.

Chinese cross the border to Taipei regularly, and Taipei is a MASSIVE destination for Japanese tourists and richer Southeast Asians to an extent.

As there are no passport controls into/out of the Vatican, it is a case of "no data" for Vatican as opposed to not being qualified on this list.

Well spotted! I was just wondering the same thing :)

Not very shocking ,at least for me.Most people who visit the states go to like New York,Los Angeles,Chicago,Miami,Las Vegas,San Francisco,Dallas,Atlanta,etc.Not really Washington ,right?:)

The entire city of Delhi, is a Union Territory under the Indian constitution, officially known as the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is an urban district of Delhi.

What is your definition of formal country?

Taiwan is a legitimate country.

Most of the Indians I know living in the US that are American citizens return every few years to visit friends. It's by far their busiest airport regarding international arrivals. I think you are severely underestimating the number of people of Indian heritage living outside the country.

Sometime around the 6th century BC.

I wasn't so much surprised by it per se, as by the relatively large gap between the numbers for the two cities.

Its an international airline hub city - add the tourists taking a short stopover to those holidaying there...surprised Singapore or Dubai wasn't included for the same reason