Worldwide travel activities can be very confusing if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. Are you looking for the number of travelers visiting a particular country, city or region? Do you want to know how much money people spend when they travel to different parts of the world? Perhaps you are interested in finding out how many people use airlines to travel the world, and how many people use cars or other modes of transportation for their travel and sightseeing.
The most important thing is to know what you are looking for and then turn to the right source. Many of the major travel magazines and publications offer annual statistics on countries, the cost of a visit, average length of stay, total number of visitors, and details on climate, activities, local attitudes, and more.
When looking for worldwide travel statistics, I usually start with the CIA World Facts websites. These provide a good overview of a country, including population, industry, major religions and other cultural factors. You can also learn about the dangers travelers may face when visiting these places. The next place I visit is Lonely Planet because it provides a more specific overview that is geared towards tourists and travelers around the world. The third stop is Thorn Tree forums where I can find specific experiences about certain countries.
Finally, I like to go to websites like CouchSurfing and look at the city and country guides created by members who live there. Only after seeing these sources do I start looking at things like the world travel industry’s lists of the fastest growing destinations in the world. Now that I have a context to think of a place, the numbers make a lot more sense.
