The Commerce Dept of the US Gov't tracks where departing American travelers say they're going to visit when they leave the US
Europe Results:
1-UK 14% (interesting to see next year!)
2-France 9%
3-Italy 7%
4-Germany 6%
Netherlands 3%
Spain 3%
Ireland 3%
Switzerland 2%
Austria 2%
Iceland -5%

I thought I'd read recently that France was the most-visited country within Europe, so American travelers are not in keeping with that trend.

Perhaps a lingering 'freedom fries' effect?

Or, just that the UK is closer, and we speak English, of a sort.

Does that most-visited figure for France include visits from within Europe? A huge number of British people who can easily nip over for a quick shopping trip do so. France also has a long and much-crossed border with Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, and also borders Spain. Comparing that with American tourism to France is kind of apples and oranges, isn't it?

Yes. The UK has forever been by far the most popular European destination for Yanks for obvious reasons.

yes, that was my point, I guess I made it badly. Most popular European destination among Americans is the UK, but France has the most tourism of any European country, so it must be a lot of Europeans, Australians, Asians, Africans,Micronesians, visiting France

I'm also curious in this study if people could only give ONE country they were going to? Clearly thousands of US visitors to Europe go first to London which is often cheapest and then either fly or take Eurostar to other countries.

Meanwhile I'm astounded that Iceland beats out Portugal or Sweden or Norway or Greece, for example.

Hmmmm, if the order is UK, France, Italy why are there many more posts for Italy than for France or UK both here and at Frommers?

The figure i believe is based on passport applications where they ask you what countries you're planning to visit - but not sure.
And about Iceland - that was a joke that went badly - i stupidly put Iceland there with a negative % - like less than no one was going there - but now i realize it may have looked like .5% - all the other figures are accurate as to the Commerce Dept. Sorry Patrick.
Figures i've seen by Eurostat say that Provence in France is Europe's number one vacation destination - again not only northern Europeans escaping their foul summer weather but tons of Brits.

Ira - like i said i think it's from passport applications - or maybe from studies at airports - i don't know but if it's from passport applications these are often first-time travelers - maybe veteran travelers like many at Fodors prefer France and Italy - first-time may gravitate to UK for language and cultural reasons. Business travelers, if included would boost the likes of Netherlands and UK as well.

in regards to ira's question:


Maybe because traveling in Italy is just a little more "complicated" than traveling in France or UK, so requires more questions?

Or maybe because more people have been to France or the UK before, so have fewer questions?

And yes, PalQ, I took that Iceland as a typo that was supposed to be .5%. But I do feel better now!

Basing that figure on informations from passport applications would certainly distort things, since you can make plenty of trips during the validity of a single passport. (Actually, I can't even remember if they do ask you for a destination on the application. Does anyybody else remember?)

Minus 5% for Iceland? Ha!

Does the Commerce Department track this from the reentry forms where you fill in the country(ies) that you visited while abroad?

Here is a list of statistics comparing outbound US travelers:

http://www.tinet.ita.doc.gov/view/f-...001/index.html

Also, if it's Commerce, not State, that keeps these numbers, it might be more likely based on something like airline tickets.

Where are these numbers posted, anyway?

Sorry, I was writing before seeing Chicago Heather's post w/site.

KT- Yes when i renewed my passport last year i remember being asked on it what countries i was planning to visit.

Just retrieved article from recycling; uncrumpling it leads to these findings:
"UK remains top country visited worldwide except Mexico and Canada - 3.7 million Americans visited UK last year"
"outbound travel set a record in 2004 - up to 61.8 million, first double-digit growth since 1995 (up 10%) and the first annual increase in outbound travel since 2000. We spent $89 billion a year while abroad.
Top non-European or non-Canada or Mexico destination: Jamaica (5%)

Come to think now - the study done by the Office of Travel & Tourism Industries, a department of the Commerce Department must be based on much better data than passport applications - but don't know what.

And here's how the information is collected. (Too complicated to summarize; basically statistical sampling of air passengers.)
http://www.tinet.ita.doc.gov/researc...scription.html

Figures i took come from Travel Weekly magazine's latest issue - it's a major travel industry magazine. KT thanks for getting to the bottom of it.