How many international tourists visit France each year?

How to get close to this number

The comparison in the explanation is the calibration: more visitors than the country's own population. Very few countries achieve a ratio above one, and the world leader does — so anchoring on the population of the country gives you the arrival figure almost directly.

Geography explains most of it. This country sits between several large wealthy neighbours with no barriers to crossing, so a substantial share of arrivals are short trips from adjacent countries rather than long-haul holidays. Tourist arrival counts reward being in the middle of a rich continent more than they reward being worth visiting.

The economic figure is the more meaningful one for the second-placed country named: tourism at roughly twelve percent of the economy. Arrival counts measure footfall; economic share measures dependence, and a country where one in eight euros comes from visitors has a very different exposure than one with the same arrivals and a larger economy.