Which cities carry the heaviest tourism load relative to their own population? We divided each city’s latest official count of international visitors by its official population — same geography on both sides of the fraction wherever the statistics allow. The result is a simple pressure gauge: visitors per resident. In Mecca, 7.7 foreign pilgrims arrive for every resident each year; in Dubai it is 5 international overnight visitors per inhabitant; giant Guangzhou, by contrast, absorbs its 5 million inbound guests almost without noticing — 0.3 per resident.
International visitors per resident (2024/2025 data)
The data
| # | City | Visitors / resident | Intl. visitors | Metric | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mecca * | 7.7 | 18.5 M (2024) | foreign pilgrims (Hajj + Umrah) | 2.39 M (2022) |
| 2 | Bangkok * | 5.6 | 30.3 M (2025) | international arrivals (city) | 5.45 M (2023) |
| 3 | Dubai | 5.1 | 19.59 M (2025) | international overnight visitors | 3.85 M (2024) |
| 4 | Da Nang | 3.3 | 4.1 M (2024) | international visitor arrivals | 1.25 M (2023) |
| 5 | Ha Long | 2.6 | 3.5 M (2024) | international visitors, Quang Ninh province (Ha Long is the provincial hub) | 1.32 M (2019) |
| 6 | London | 2.4 | 20.9 M (2024) | inbound overseas visits | 8.9 M (2023) |
| 7 | Paris | 1.8 | 22.6 M (2024) | international tourists, Greater Paris Region (Île-de-France) | 12.27 M (2021) |
| 8 | Tokyo | 1.8 | 24.79 M (2024) | foreign travelers visiting Tokyo | 14.1 M (2024) |
| 9 | Guangzhou | 0.3 | 5.01 M (2024) | inbound overnight visitors (incl. Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan; foreigners: 2.05M) | 18.8 M (2023) |
| 10 | Chennai * | 0.2 | 0.79 M (2024) | foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) via Chennai airport, port-of-entry statistic | 4.65 M (2011) |
Download: tourists_per_resident_2026.csv — the full dataset including sources, years and caveat flags for every row.
What stands out
- Mecca is in a category of its own (7.7). 18.5 million foreign pilgrims (GASTAT, 2024) meet a resident population of 2.4 million — and unlike ordinary tourism, much of this load concentrates around Hajj, when roughly 1.8 million pilgrims arrive within days.
- Dubai (5.1) runs the highest genuinely comparable ratio: 19.59 million international overnight visitors (DET, 2025) against 3.85 million residents, with both figures measured for the whole emirate.
- The mid-size boom towns feel it most. Da Nang (3.3) and Ha Long’s Quang Ninh province (2.7) now outpace London (2.4), Paris (1.8) and Tokyo (1.8) — tourism pressure is a function of size, and these coastal destinations are growing 20–36% a year.
- Megacities barely register. Guangzhou hosts 5 million inbound overnight visitors among 18.8 million residents (0.3) — more international guests than Ha Long, at a tenth of the per-capita pressure.
Methodology & caveats
Visitor figures are each city’s most recent official statistic (city tourism boards, national statistics offices, metropolitan governments); populations come from official censuses and estimates. We match geographies wherever possible: Paris uses the Île-de-France region on both sides (visitors and population), Ha Long uses Quang Ninh province on both sides, Dubai and London are emirate- and Greater-London-consistent. Rows marked * have a known mismatch we could not resolve with official data: Bangkok’s widely cited 30.3 million arrivals (Euromonitor, 2025) cover the metropolitan area while the 5.45 million population counts registered city residents only — the true ratio is lower than shown; Chennai’s figure counts airport arrivals (a port-of-entry statistic) against a 2011 census population; Mecca’s visitors are religious pilgrims, not conventional tourists. We publish the caveats rather than smoothing them away — every underlying number, source and year is in the CSV. Full sourcing: About TN Cities & Methodology · The World’s Most Visited Cities.
More TN Cities data stories
- The Fastest-Growing City Destinations — year-on-year growth from official statistics.
- The Most Visited Cities Nobody Writes About — Johor, Zhuhai, Batam & Muğla — travel’s invisible giants.
- Asia vs. Europe: City Tourism Since 2019 — who passed pre-pandemic levels, and who did not.
- Religious Travel Giants — Mecca, Medina, Karbala and the Kumbh in numbers.
- The World’s Most Visited Cities — the master table: official arrivals per city with metric, year and source.
Changelog
- 2026-09-01: First edition, 10-city cohort (2024/2025 official data).