The chart above shows the number of tourists per resident that visited each EU and US state in 2012. Small island states with warm weather do pretty well for themselves, but then again so does a desert (Nevada), people are strange sometimes.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the most international tourists per capita, Hawaii, and the state with the least, West Virginia, is 5.13.
- Hawaii has 286.06 times the per capita international tourists that West Virginia does.
- The median number of international tourists in the 28 EU states is 0.67 and the mean 0.92.
- The median number of international tourists in the 50 US states is 0.08 and the mean 0.27.
- The median number of international tourists in the 78 EU and US states is 0.15 and the mean 0.50.
- Eleven states received more international tourists than their population (only two of which are from the US): Hawaii, Malta, Austria, Cyprus, Croatia, Nevada, Luxembourg, Estonia, Greece, Slovenia, and Spain.
Caveats
- Tourist data is from 2012 except for Ireland which is from 2014.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
- US tourist data does not include tourists from other US states. EU tourist data includes tourists from other EU states.
- The data for Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, and West Virginia indicates the maximum possible number of tourists as the sample size was too small to be accurate.
- US data is based on total number of international tourists to the US in 2012 and distributed among the states based on a survey that was conducted on the first quarter of the same year.
Details
The United States has the state with the most visitors relative to its population by far, however, it also the twenty states with the least visitors relative to their population, not to mention 46 of the 50 states with the lowest ratio of tourists to locals. Granted, EU states' data includes EU interstate tourists and if the US data also included interstate travelers, the chart may look considerably different.
Only Austria is in the top ten in both overall international tourists and per capita international tourists. Eight states rank in the top fifteen in both metrics (rank in per capita tourists, rank in total tourists): Austria (3,6), Croatia (5,12), Czech Republic (15,13), Florida (13,8), Greece (9,11), Italy (14,1), New York (12,7), and Spain (11,2).
Sources
Eurostat. 2018. "Arrivals at Tourist Accommodation Establishments." Accessed September 18, 2018. http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055748_QID_740A02AF_UID_-3F171EB0&layout=TIME,C,X,0;GEO,L,Y,0;C_RESID,L,Z,0;UNIT,L,Z,1;NACE_R2,L,Z,2;INDICATORS,C,Z,3;&zSelection=DS-055748NACE_R2,I551-I553;DS-055748C_RESID,FOR;DS-055748UNIT,NR;DS-055748INDICATORS,OBS_FLAG;&rankName1=C-RESID_1_2_-1_2&rankName2=UNIT_1_2_-1_2&rankName3=INDICATORS_1_2_-1_2&rankName4=NACE-R2_1_2_-1_2&rankName5=TIME_1_0_0_0&rankName6=GEO_1_2_0_1&sortC=ASC_-1_FIRST&rStp=&cStp=&rDCh=&cDCh=&rDM=true&cDM=true&footnes=false&empty=false&wai=false&time_mode=NONE&time_most_recent=false&lang=EN&cfo=%23%23%23%2C%23%23%23.%23%23%23.
Eurostat. 2017. "Population on 1 January by Age Groups and Sex - Functional Urban Areas." Accessed December 11, 2017. http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=urb_lpop1&lang=en.
National Trade and Tourism Office. 2018. "International Visitation in the United States." Accessed September 18, 2018. https://travel.trade.gov/outreachpages/inbound.general_information.inbound_overview.html.
National Trade and Tourism Office. 2018. "Survey of International Air Travelers." Accessed September 18, 2018. https://travel.trade.gov/research/programs/ifs/examples.asp.
United States Census Bureau. "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2016." Accessed December 12, 2017. http://factfinder2.census.gov.