England is a part of the United Kingdom along with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  It's thousands of years of history is for many visitors the main attraction. Stonehenge, castles and royalty make up a small part of this country’s attractions. Invaders have arrived, settled and made their mark which has resulted in England’s fascinating mix of landscape, culture and language.

This larger than life holiday destination came in as the 3rd most visited country in the world in 2018 hosting over 79.6 million visitors! _{[sourced UNWTO Highlights July 2019]}

A tourist attraction refers to both constructed and natural attractions existing at a destination which are of interest to tourists.  The list of attractions is endless with each region of the world compiling its own unique range attracting tourists from every corner of the globe.

For many destinations, visitor expenditure is a very important part of the economy, creating employment and development opportunities.  The amount of money tourists spend is called Tourism Receipts.

Let's look at which regions travellers are coming from, in other words, the generating regions.

Look at some infographics below based on data from the UNTWO 2019 report.

Host region refers to the country or region to which people travel; that is, the receiving country or region for incoming tourists.

Before we begin looking at which countries generate a lot of tourists, and which countries are visited most in the world, let’s define a few terms that will assist you in understanding actual statistics which identify the world’s major generating countries.

For many countries the gateway city is also the capital, however larger countries may have multiple gateway cities.

The World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) is a specialised agency of the United ‎Nations and is responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.  Lets find out more about it below.