The World's Top Tourist Attractions

Updated on 1 November 2017

Purpose

I use this to keep track of websites that provide lists to the most important tourist attractions around the world -- which I use for my work. I maintains this more like a webpage and will update it as I find resources to add. Suggestions are welcome.

Lists of theTop Tourist Attractions in the World

1 - Planetware - Attractions listed by country - based on Baedeker Guides, this may be the most complete list of top attractions (4 and 5 star-rated), listed by country, that is available anywhere. From this link, click on a country, then click on Top Attractions. For a more complete list (and alternative attractions) click on the Attractions link.

2 - World Tourist Attraction Guide - A fairly comprehensive list of major world tourist attractions by region. Also includes country information, contact addresses for additional tourist information, videos and photos of some destinations, and maps. Some areas may still be under construction.

3 - Hillman Wonders - World's Top 100 Wonders of the World - Also liste by country. Individual descriptions are provided for most sites.

4 - Sightsmap - A Google Map of the most photographed places on the internet. Zoom in at any scale to see the ten most photographed sites, which are frequently also the ten most popular or visited attractions. Zoom in even more to see actual photos.

5 - National Geographic's Destinations website - with travel guides organized by region and country.

Top Specialty and Niche Attractions

1. UNESCO World Heritage List - Even better is The Tentative List (on the sidebar menu of this site), which includes sites that countries plan to propose to the Heritage List in the future, and many of which are "undiscovered" by the mass tourism industry.Also on the sidebar menu is their World Heritage in Danger List.

2. Atlas Obscura - A listing of some of the more obscure (odd, unusual and often dark) attractions around the world.

3. Protected Planet - A Google Map showing protected natural areas of the world, with links to additional information.

Related Attraction Resources

1 - World Tourism Directory - Comprehensive list of tourism offices, tourism schools, country and attraction information, and more. Also try the UNWTO Membership Directory.

2 - Travel Photo Base.com - Annotated photos for a huge number of places around the US and the World. - Also see: Fotopedia.com, which seems to have become more popular in recent years.

Travelography #151: Time for Sustainable Tourism, and The Best of ...

Use the players on this page, or click the title above to listen to this podcast.

Stories discussed in this podcast are from the Travelography Twitter Blog for the week of 7 April to 14 April 2009. This podcast is also available at Blubrry.com and Travelgeography.info.

US Volunteer vacation sales up 28 percent

"The recession has encouraged many people to volunteer and take some time away from all of the bad news. What we have seen is an increase in shorter volunteer trips in locations that are closer to home for Americans such as Latin America," ... There has been a distinct increase in 22-30 year olds wanting to volunteer abroad - a mixture of recession fear and a new generation of travelers that want to give back when going abroad.

No more new hotels for Bali

In an effort to protect the resort island's natural environment, the Bali provincial administration has decided to stop issuing official recommendations for the construction of new hotels, villas or homestays. "The moratorium for the construction of new hotels is an appropriate measure to secure the island's future." .... The moratorium is temporary, he added.

Ranking the country's (US) most popular destinations

#1. Times Square, New York City: 37.6 million; #2. The Las Vegas Strip, Nev.: 30 Million; #3. National Mall and Memorial Parks, Washington, D.C.: 25 million ...

The 20 best views in the world

1. The Grand Canyon from the South Rim; 2. Hong Kong Island from Kowloon; 3. Phang Nga Bay, Thailand; 4. Manhattan from the top of Rockefeller Plaza; 5. Istanbul skyline from the Bosphorus strait, Turkey

Beijing extends limits on car use for cleaner air

The restrictions were first announced in October following public debate over whether to extend traffic restrictions that helped keep skies clear during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They were set to expire at the end of this week. The traffic bureau said on its Web site Sunday that the capital will continue to keep a third of government vehicles off the road altogether.

Italy wrestles with historic preservation

... the state-run Civil Protection Service said it would cost at least $1.7 billion to monitor and upgrade the safety standards of government-owned buildings that are more than 3 centuries old. "The problem is extraordinarily serious in Italy because there are so many ancient structures still being used, probably more than in any other country," ...

Travelography #135: Responsible Travel and Tourism around the Globe

Use the players on this page, or click the title above to listen to this podcast.

Stories discussed in this podcast are from the Travelography Twitter Blog for the week of 10 November 2008. This podcast is also available at Blubrry.com and Travelgeography.info.

• Air New Zealand Schedules First Commercial Biofuel Flight

  On December 3rd, Air New Zealand will be the first commercial airline to power one of its jets with a second generation non-food biofuel made from the Jatropha plant. Jatropha is viewed as having a huge potential as a major source of oil for sustainable biofuel production.

• The Responsible Tourism Awards organised by responsibletravel.com

  The judges declared New Zealand the overall winner for proving that it is possible to develop a national strategy which uses tourism to help make better places to live and to visit.

• China’s First Carbon Neutral Hotel wins Accolade

  “By renovating an existing downtown factory, focusing on using recycled and locally sourced materials such as reclaimed hardwoods and old Shanghai bricks, and introducing eco-friendly solutions like passive solar shades, and water based AC systems, URBN hopes to set an example for other businesses and industries in China and around the world,” Mr Krauss said. “We track the total amount of energy (gas, water and electricity) the hotel consumes, including staff commutes, in order to calculate the carbon footprint.

• Ivory trade thriving in China but signs of decline

  Ivory continues to be smuggled into China despite a ban on imports that dates back to 1991, with the tusks mainly being sourced from Africa, according to the report released by TRAFFIC, a wildlife monitoring organisation. Nevertheless, it said increased enforcement of regulations in China had led to some improvements, with surveys of markets showing that fewer illegal products were on sale.

• United environmental flight reduces carbon emissions by nearly 33,000 pounds

  ASPIRE United’ reduced fuel burn and emissions by using up-to-the-minute fuel data, priority takeoff clearance, normally restricted airspace around Sydney’s airport, and new arrival procedures – all of which are possible with new technology.
• Maldives seek to buy a new homeland

  The Maldives will begin to divert a portion of the country's billion-dollar annual tourist revenue into buying a new homeland - as an insurance policy against climate change that threatens to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees,...

Travelography #128: Economy + Environment Stall Cruise Lines

Use the players on this page, or click the title above to listen to this podcast.

Stories discussed in this podcast are from the Travelography Twitter Blog for the week of 22 September 2008. This podcast is also available at Blubrry.com and Travelgeography.info.

Analyst cuts Carnival rating to "Sell"

... $100 a barrel oil and rising shipbuilding costs require the industry to focus on improving returns by raising cruise prices and cutting commissions to travel agents. ... Carnival's $10 billion in ship orders means that the company cannot make this shift for at least four years.

Regulators cite nearly half of the 20 ships that regularly discharge in Alaska waters

Six Princess Cruises ships, a Norwegian Cruise Line ship and a Regent Seven Seas Cruises ship were cited for exceeding limits on wastewater pollution. Last week, a Holland America cruise ship was cited. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has not yet dealt with samples from August and September, and may find more violations.

Little Mermaid's trip to Shanghai irks Copenhagen tourists, lawmakers

"How would people of New York feel if they decided to move the Statue of Liberty to China?'' says Karin Noedgaard, the People's Party spokeswoman on cultural affairs. ``This is a catastrophic idea.''

Grounded space tourist wants $21 million refund

Enomoto alleges he was pulled from the flight so Ansari, who had invested in Space Adventures, could fly instead. Ansari also was the primary backer of the $10 million Ansari X Prize awarded in 2004 for the first privately developed manned space flight. In a response filed on Wednesday, Space Adventures' lawyers said Enomoto's contract did not entitle him to a refund if he became medically disqualified.

Plane crazy? New airline launched

Jet Republic bosses are putting their trust in the ultra-rich avoiding the turbulence from the credit crunch as they launch their new luxury service. The company has placed an order worth around £830m for 110 Learjet aircraft, each seating seven passengers. The airline will fly to more than 1,000 airports in Europe, including the UK, from its base in Lisbon, Portugal.

With Economy in Crisis Mode, Leaders Gather at The Lodging Conference

...the next major trend to hit the lodging industry will be green hotels. That trend is being driven to a great extent by increasing energy prices. “In some islands of the Caribbean, energy prices have doubled since last year,” ... “As brands, we need to start requiring green changes.” “In many future developments, you will see more solar and wind technologies,

G4T #59: Teaching Tourism with Social Software

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to open the .mp3 file)

CLICK THE EMBEDDED LINK BELOW TO HEAR AND SEE THIS PRESENTATION

Today's podcast is a presentation that I gave at the NAU eLearning Institute in May, 2007. I gave a 1 hour presentation on how I used social media, especially blogs, podcasts and wikis, to teach an online class in Spring 2007. The class was titled "Planning for Sustainable Tourism."

Total Length: 54m 48sec

Here are some links related to this presentation

• Course outline posted on Web20Teach blog
• Elluminate.com
• InnerToob.com
• My Slideshare.net page - Powerpoint slides and forthcoming Slidecast for this podcast
• --- Slidecast for this presentation
• --- Bicycle Touring slidecast (from the 30 June 2007 G4T podcast)
• My Twitter

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Note that this version of the Powerpoint presentation is slightly different from the audio file. There are a couple of slides at the start and at the end that were not in the presentation when the audio was recorded, and there is one slide at the end that I mention (very briefly) that is not in the slidecast. --- Long story....

Ethics and Sustainable Tourism - with David Fennell (Slidecast)

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast post - Click on the title above to download the .mp3 file - OR - Play the Slidecast Version Here: (length: 48 min 32 sec)

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Today's Geography for Travelers Podcast is a recording of a presentation by Prof. David Fennell of Brock University at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, 17-22 April 2007. The title of his presentation is:

Ethics: We're Stuck With It [in Tourism]...Whether We Like It Or Not!
This was a 45 minute plenary presentation sponsored by my journal, Tourism Geographies, and funded by the journal's publisher, Routledge/Taylor and Francis, Ltd.

Part 1 of this podcast is the actual presentation. Part 2 of this podcast will is the questions and answers that followed the presentation. I will post that in about 1 to 2 weeks as a separate podcast.

ALSO - A Slidecast version of this podcast, which is linked to David's Powerpoint slides, is available above, as well as at http://www.slideshare.net/alew.

Here is the Abstract of David Fennell's presentation from the conference program:

Trivers' (1971) theory of reciprocal altruism, emerging from animal behaviour studies, is premised on the belief that human social behaviour is said to have evolved in relatively small, stable communities where groups of people had opportunities to forge cooperative relationships over time through repeated interaction. The more time we have to engage in altruistic acts—acts that are returned in kind— the better chance for individuals and groups to set up longer term cooperative relationships. Cooperation of this sort can be challenged in tourism because of limited interactions based on restricted periods of time, with implications at the micro scale (tourist-host interactions) and at the macro scale (collective interactions within the region as a whole). Despite these challenges, ethics and trust have emerged from reciprocal altruism as mechanisms that induce both short-term and long-term cooperative relationships for mutual benefit. Implications of these relationships are discussed in the context of generating ways to improve cooperation for the tourism industry as a whole.
Keywords: ethics, reciprocal altruism, cooperation

Original Show Notes for this podcast are at: http://TravelGeography.info