Countries by International tourism, expenditures (current US$)
Germany ranks 1st in international tourism expenditures with $101.23 billion in 2020, more than double the United States at rank 2 with $48.84 billion. At the other end, Samoa ranks 183rd with just $1.8 million. The gap between first and last spans over 5.6 million percent, reflecting vast differences in outbound travel capacity across economies.
Ranking 2020
| Rank | Country | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | 101,231,000,000 |
| 2 | United States | 48,837,000,000 |
| 3 | Canada | 41,247,000,000 |
| 4 | France | 31,193,000,000 |
| 5 | Hong Kong | 26,498,000,000 |
| 6 | Singapore | 25,346,000,000 |
| 7 | South Korea | 16,705,000,000 |
| 8 | India | 15,777,000,000 |
| 9 | United Arab Emirates | 15,085,000,000 |
| 10 | Belgium | 13,928,000,000 |
| 11 | Italy | 12,965,000,000 |
| 12 | Qatar | 11,504,000,000 |
| 13 | Russia | 10,800,000,000 |
| 14 | Denmark | 10,485,000,000 |
| 15 | Switzerland | 10,372,000,000 |
| 16 | Iran | 9,271,000,000 |
| 17 | Saudi Arabia | 9,069,000,000 |
| 18 | Australia | 7,654,000,000 |
| 19 | Netherlands | 7435700195.31 |
| 20 | Japan | 6,741,000,000 |
| 21 | Kuwait | 6,696,000,000 |
| 22 | Nigeria | 6,613,000,000 |
| 23 | Brazil | 6,490,000,000 |
| 24 | Austria | 5,551,000,000 |
| 25 | Poland | 5,547,000,000 |
| 26 | Malaysia | 5,206,000,000 |
| 27 | Philippines | 4,872,000,000 |
| 28 | Ukraine | 4,823,000,000 |
| 29 | New Zealand | 4,603,000,000 |
| 30 | Vietnam | 4,360,000,000 |
| 31 | Mexico | 4,286,000,000 |
| 32 | Norway | 4,230,000,000 |
| 33 | Iraq | 4,172,000,000 |
| 34 | Thailand | 3,681,000,000 |
| 35 | Portugal | 3,536,000,000 |
| 36 | Czechia | 3,495,000,000 |
| 37 | Romania | 3,472,000,000 |
| 38 | Venezuela | 2,920,000,000 |
| 39 | Argentina | 2,746,000,000 |
| 40 | Bahrain | 2,637,000,000 |
| 41 | Egypt | 2,578,000,000 |
| 42 | Luxembourg | 2,458,000,000 |
| 43 | Ireland | 2,334,000,000 |
| 44 | Israel | 2,175,000,000 |
| 45 | Libya | 2,042,000,000 |
| 46 | Indonesia | 1,980,000,000 |
| 47 | Finland | 1,940,000,000 |
| 48 | Lebanon | 1,699,000,000 |
| 49 | Türkiye | 1,639,000,000 |
| 50 | South Africa | 1,594,000,000 |
| 51 | Colombia | 1,576,000,000 |
| 52 | Morocco | 1,509,000,000 |
| 53 | Greece | 1,500,000,000 |
| 54 | Hungary | 1,334,000,000 |
| 55 | Slovakia | 1,291,000,000 |
| 56 | Bulgaria | 1,263,000,000 |
| 57 | Pakistan | 1,245,000,000 |
| 58 | Oman | 1,236,000,000 |
| 59 | Serbia | 1,179,000,000 |
| 60 | Guinea | 1075099975.59 |
| 61 | Uzbekistan | 1,062,000,000 |
| 62 | Ghana | 946,000,000 |
| 63 | Peru | 938,000,000 |
| 64 | Puerto Rico | 893,000,000 |
| 65 | Macao | 886,000,000 |
| 66 | Cyprus | 880,000,000 |
| 67 | Kazakhstan | 861,000,000 |
| 68 | Slovenia | 855799987.79 |
| 69 | Syria | 850,000,000 |
| 70 | Albania | 805,000,000 |
| 71 | Sri Lanka | 803,000,000 |
| 72 | Croatia | 789687194.82 |
| 73 | Tanzania | 738200012.21 |
| 74 | Chile | 720,000,000 |
| 75 | Cameroon | 697,000,000 |
| 75 | Costa Rica | 697,000,000 |
| 77 | Angola | 691,000,000 |
| 78 | Estonia | 676,000,000 |
| 79 | Bangladesh | 659,000,000 |
| 80 | Panama | 601,000,000 |
| 81 | Brunei | 585,000,000 |
| 82 | Mongolia | 573,000,000 |
| 83 | Palestine | 567,000,000 |
| 84 | Haiti | 554,000,000 |
| 85 | Ecuador | 533,000,000 |
| 86 | Belarus | 477,000,000 |
| 87 | Zambia | 474,000,000 |
| 88 | South Sudan | 469,000,000 |
| 89 | Republic of Congo | 457,000,000 |
| 90 | Dominican Republic | 444,000,000 |
| 91 | Azerbaijan | 439,000,000 |
| 92 | Uruguay | 412,000,000 |
| 93 | Jordan | 408,000,000 |
| 94 | Tunisia | 407,000,000 |
| 95 | Gabon | 346,000,000 |
| 95 | Guatemala | 346,000,000 |
| 97 | Armenia | 330,000,000 |
| 98 | Bolivia | 325,000,000 |
| 99 | Senegal | 324,000,000 |
| 100 | Ethiopia | 322,500,000 |
| 101 | Côte d'Ivoire | 315,000,000 |
| 102 | Aruba | 310,000,000 |
| 103 | Moldova | 303,000,000 |
| 104 | Cayman Islands | 299,000,000 |
| 105 | Georgia | 292,000,000 |
| 106 | Jamaica | 291,000,000 |
| 107 | Lesotho | 277,000,000 |
| 108 | Algeria | 272,000,000 |
| 109 | Uganda | 268,000,000 |
| 110 | Nepal | 267,000,000 |
| 111 | Laos | 260,000,000 |
| 112 | Mali | 255,000,000 |
| 113 | New Caledonia | 252,000,000 |
| 114 | Honduras | 230,000,000 |
| 115 | French Polynesia | 226,000,000 |
| 115 | Paraguay | 226,000,000 |
| 117 | Mauritius | 224,000,000 |
| 118 | Myanmar | 214,000,000 |
| 119 | Cambodia | 213,000,000 |
| 120 | Bermuda | 212,000,000 |
| 121 | Andorra | 187,000,000 |
| 122 | Burkina Faso | 185199996.95 |
| 123 | Kyrgyzstan | 185,000,000 |
| 124 | Bahamas | 166,000,000 |
| 125 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 163,000,000 |
| 126 | El Salvador | 162,000,000 |
| 127 | Zimbabwe | 157,000,000 |
| 128 | North Macedonia | 153,000,000 |
| 129 | Niger | 144,500,000 |
| 130 | Papua New Guinea | 134,000,000 |
| 131 | Benin | 130,000,000 |
| 132 | Curaçao | 127,000,000 |
| 132 | Rwanda | 127,000,000 |
| 134 | Malawi | 119,000,000 |
| 135 | DR Congo | 115,000,000 |
| 136 | Maldives | 106,000,000 |
| 137 | Nicaragua | 102,000,000 |
| 138 | Barbados | 99,000,000 |
| 139 | Madagascar | 97,000,000 |
| 140 | Mozambique | 95,000,000 |
| 141 | Botswana | 91800003.05 |
| 142 | Guinea-Bissau | 88900001.53 |
| 143 | Sierra Leone | 83,000,000 |
| 144 | Fiji | 77,000,000 |
| 144 | Namibia | 77,000,000 |
| 146 | Central African Republic | 69800003.05 |
| 147 | Suriname | 64,000,000 |
| 148 | Timor-Leste | 61,000,000 |
| 148 | Togo | 61,000,000 |
| 150 | Cabo Verde | 59,000,000 |
| 151 | Yemen | 56,000,000 |
| 152 | Bhutan | 50,000,000 |
| 153 | Afghanistan | 49,000,000 |
| 153 | Burundi | 49,000,000 |
| 155 | Comoros | 43,000,000 |
| 156 | Trinidad and Tobago | 42,000,000 |
| 157 | Seychelles | 39,000,000 |
| 158 | Montenegro | 38,000,000 |
| 158 | Tonga | 38,000,000 |
| 160 | Eswatini | 36400001.53 |
| 161 | Antigua and Barbuda | 35,000,000 |
| 161 | Mauritania | 35,000,000 |
| 163 | Marshall Islands | 31399999.62 |
| 164 | Solomon Islands | 30909999.85 |
| 165 | Djibouti | 29600000.38 |
| 166 | Micronesia | 29,000,000 |
| 167 | Saint Lucia | 28,000,000 |
| 168 | Kiribati | 24569999.69 |
| 169 | Palau | 23299999.24 |
| 170 | Belize | 22040000.92 |
| 171 | Vanuatu | 22,000,000 |
| 172 | Sint Maarten (Dutch part) | 21,000,000 |
| 173 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 18,000,000 |
| 174 | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 13,000,000 |
| 174 | Sudan | 13,000,000 |
| 176 | Grenada | 12,000,000 |
| 177 | Tajikistan | 10800000.19 |
| 178 | Tuvalu | 9800000.19 |
| 179 | Dominica | 9,000,000 |
| 180 | Nauru | 7,100,000 |
| 181 | Gambia | 5199999.81 |
| 182 | Sao Tome and Principe | 3200000.05 |
| 183 | Samoa | 1799999.95 |
Analysis
This metric measures international tourism expenditures in current US dollars, covering the outbound spending of a country's residents when traveling abroad. According to the source definition: 'International tourism expenditures are expenditures of international outbound visitors in other countries, including payments to foreign carriers for international transport. These expenditures may include those by residents traveling abroad as same-day visitors, except in cases where these are important enough to justify separate classification. For some countries they do not include expenditures.' The unit is an absolute value in current US dollars, where higher values indicate greater outbound tourism spending. The dataset covers 183 countries, with 152 of 183 (83.1%) providing data from the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints rated as official-quality. The data year is 2020. Statistical analysis flagged 26 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, and average year-over-year volatility across the dataset is 21.0%.
The top of the ranking is dominated by large, high-income economies. Germany leads decisively at rank 1 with $101.23 billion, followed by the United States at rank 2 with $48.84 billion and Canada at rank 3 with $41.25 billion. France ranks 4th at $31.19 billion. Notably, Hong Kong SAR ranks 5th at $26.50 billion and Singapore ranks 6th at $25.35 billion, both small territories with high per-capita outbound spending volumes. Korea ranks 7th at $16.71 billion and India ranks 8th at $15.78 billion. Belgium at rank 10 with $13.93 billion and Qatar at rank 12 with $11.50 billion reflect the effect of wealth concentration and transit-hub geography on outbound expenditure totals.
Several counterintuitive placements appear in the middle ranks. Nigeria ranks 22nd at $6.61 billion, placing it above Japan (rank 20, $6.74 billion) is close, but Nigeria sits between Kuwait at rank 21 ($6.70 billion) and Brazil at rank 23 ($6.49 billion), a grouping that spans very different economic profiles. Guinea ranks 60th at approximately $1.08 billion, placing it above Uzbekistan (rank 61, $1.06 billion), Ghana (rank 62, $946 million), and Peru (rank 63, $938 million). Libya ranks 45th at $2.04 billion, ahead of Indonesia (rank 46, $1.98 billion), which has a population roughly 25 times larger. At the lower end, Samoa ranks 183rd at $1.8 million, Sao Tome and Principe ranks 182nd at $3.2 million, and Gambia ranks 181st at $5.2 million.
Several data limitations apply to this metric. The source note explicitly states that for some countries the figures do not include all expenditures, creating inconsistencies in what is captured across countries. The 2020 data year coincides with severe global travel restrictions, which means values across all countries are likely suppressed relative to typical years. Only 75.4% of countries have data from the latest year (2020), meaning the remaining 24.6% may reflect earlier reporting periods. The metric is in current US dollars, so exchange rate fluctuations can distort comparisons, particularly for countries with volatile currencies. Absolute values also favor large or wealthy populations and do not reflect per-capita outbound travel intensity.
Methodology
Data sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code ST.INT.XPND.CD, for the year 2020. Values represent absolute international tourism expenditures in current US dollars. The source definition applied is: 'International tourism expenditures are expenditures of international outbound visitors in other countries, including payments to foreign carriers for international transport. These expenditures may include those by residents traveling abroad as same-day visitors, except in cases where these are important enough to justify separate classification. For some countries they do not include expenditures.' The ranking covers 183 countries, exceeding the 80-country coverage threshold. Of these, 152 (83.1%) have data from within the last seven years. All 183 datapoints (100%) are classified as official quality, above the 70% threshold. The dataset contains 26 extreme outliers as identified by a 3-sigma test. Average year-over-year volatility is 21.0%, within the 50% acceptability threshold. The value range spans from $1,800,000 (Samoa, rank 183) to $101,231,000,000 (Germany, rank 1), a spread of approximately 5,623,845%. Higher values indicate greater outbound tourism expenditure and are treated as better in this ranking.