distant_traveler

I was researching European destinations and came up with some interesting trivia. The two cities that have the most tourists from Europe are.....Lisbon and Barcelona.

I would think that Paris, London and Rome would be more popular but maybe European travelers are bored with these huge cities. Why Lisbon and Barcelona?

Cowboy1968

My first guess would be: better value for money.
Hotels & restaurants at reasonable prices, good climate, hip club scene, good connections with low budget airlines, not that crowded...

alanRow

Barcelona is popular with the stag & hen party trade and is easily accessible from most of Europe. Don't know why Lisbon would be in the list

flanneruk

I'd love to know what the source of this "information" is. I'd wager a substantial amount of money it's simply not true.

The two cities in Europe most visited by Europeans are London and Paris. Lisbon might - just - get more Portuguese visitors than anywhere else in Europe, but even that I doubt.

imaway

Berlin and Berlin! ok .. i love it!

kerouac

"the most tourists from Europe"

The only way that such a statement could approach the truth might be if we are only talking about the proportion of tourists originating from Europe. (Paris, London and Berlin are the cities the most visited by Europeans -- and everybody else.)

That would in turn imply that visitors from other continents have absolutely no interest in those two cities, which is not very encouraging.

But the statement is clearly a bunch of BS.

traveller1959

I am sorry, but OP's information is simply wrong.

Here the number of visitors in 2005:

1. London 25.800.000
2. Paris 15.399.820
3. Berlin 6.464.522
4. Barcelona 5.487.564
5. Dublin 4.991.000
6. Amsterdam 4.517.000
7. München 4.122.156
8. Prague 4.108.565
9. Wien 4.088.415
10. Hamburg 3.450.864
...
15. Lisbon 2.282.664

Rome is missing because they have not delivered statistical data, but judging from the number of overnight stays, it should be on the same level as Berlin.

Source: European Cities Tourism

flanneruk

Well, I'd also wager an even more substantial amount that traveller 1959's got it wrong too.

Leaving aside definitions of "visitor" - because I simply don't believe Lodon gets 60% more tourists than Paris (it might get 60% more foreign visitors, but they're all on business, not on holiday) - I can't accept for a nanosecond that Dublin (never mind Hamburg) gets more tourists (or visitors) than Rome, Athens, Venice or Palma, Majorca.

European City Tourism is talking through its rear end.

ComfyShoes

I am not wagering anything, flanneruk, but if you lose your wager and don't have an address to send it too, I can give you mine

Traveller1959, Does that data contain non-European visitors? BTW, demonstrating my low IQ, where is wien?!

traveller1959

Here the full figures for London and Paris:

London:
visitors 25.800.000 (from other countries: 13.800.000)
overnight stays 119.600.000 (from other countries: 91.100.000)

Paris:
visitors 15.399.820 (from other countries: 9.013.611)
overnight stays 33.664.075 (from other countries: 22.512.302)

This statistics counts all kinds of visitors - tourists, business people, family and friends etc.

Venice has only 1.434.043 visitors per year - it appears to be more because the town is so small and gets easily crowded.

traveller1959

Wien is the capital of Austria, a small country north of Italy and south of Germany.

ComfyShoes

Hello traveller1959,

Vienna is how I have always known it. Thanks for enlightening me with the location information. Believe me, I really need and could use people like you to guide me.

But if the numbers include all visitors, it doesn't really address OP's original question (referring to <u>European</u> travelers). May I suggest you do some more research or you may lose the wager to flannerUK. But noting venice is 1,434,043, I do like the precision in your data!

Christina

I don't think tourism boards really can know exactly how many tourists visit a place, so they estimate it from hotel bookings or something. I've seen estimates of tourists, not just &quot;visitors&quot;, and I know London Paris and Rome are the top three in Europe for tourists, then Madrid, Berlin, Prague, etc.

I've seen some estimates of UK tourists visiting London, but can't recall them. HOwever, I am in agreement that even though I don't have numbers of European tourists visiting other cities, I also simply do not believe that Lisbon and Barcelona are the top two. It just doesn't have any face validity.

I suspect the statement, if even close to that, close have been what I think Kerouac is saying -- of all their tourists, those cities have the greatest proportion of tourists that are from Europe. That isn't the same as having the most European tourists (ie, if 90% of Lisbon's tourists came from Europe, that still wouldn't mean they had more European tourists than London in number).

I think that could be true, at least I wouldn't immediately think it can't be true.

ipod_robbie

Before we go too far trying to debate and assign any credibility to the statement about Barcelona and Lisbon, I suggest we assess the overall credibility of the OP. Registered a few days ago. A long list of complaining posts about Asia, Europe, Caribbean, etc. If you want some entertainment click on OP's name and you'll see what I mean.

BTW, I completely agree that any statement of Barcelona and Lisbon #1 &amp; 2 on the list is a farce. Just because it's posted on the internet doesn't mean it's true.

I saw a posting about a recent Elvis sighting........

kerouac

I agree that I have been wondering about this poster. I think the person is just trying to provoke indignation on various subjects and is planning on using the reactions perhaps for a novel in progress.

111op

Maybe it's hyperbole on the part of the documentary &quot;Venetian Dilemma,&quot; but it claims that Venice sees 14 million tourists a year.

You can check the claim in some reviews found on the website for the movie, but I guess to get the number would require seeing the movie:

http://www.parnassusworks.org/reviews.htm

I remember thinking that this number for Venice is extremely striking.

111op

Ok, I should have looked a little harder. You can find stills from the movie on this website as well (see the still about the 14 million number):

http://www.parnassusworks.org/stills-ok-01.htm

Of course they could be exaggerating.

kerouac

The most terrible statistic about Venice is the population drain. Although small, it used to be a real city, and if you were on the canals at night, there were families and life in the windows. Now it is a ghost town, because fewer and fewer people live there.

111op

Yes, if you believe the film still, population went from 175000 in 1950 to 64000 in 2004.

When I was there a few weeks ago I was amazed by how quiet it was around 8:30 in the morning. I was guessing that the shops must be tended to by people who don't live in Venice.