Cyprus is the 7th most visited country per capita

With three visitors per inhabitant, Cyprus is among the most visited countries in the world, a new study by online magazine TravelMag has found.

Numbers for visitor arrivals used for the survey were taken from a report released by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

With 6,600 visitors per 1,000 residents arriving in Iceland each year, that country emerged on top. 

Malta was in second place with 5,300 visitors, while the Bahamas completed the top three spots with 3,800 visitors.

Cyprus is number seven, with 3,000 tourists for every 1,000 residents. It is higher ranked than Greece which had 2,400 and is in 11th place.

The UK has seen a big increase in tourism thanks to the pound sterling’s drop in value after Brexit, but still only sees 569 visitors per 1,000 inhabitants.

At the other end of the spectrum Somalia, Yemen and Libya are the least visited counties, with less than one visitor per 1,000 residents. 

While no UNWTO data was available for these destinations, tourist arrivals are close to zero according to various independent sources.

Total international tourist arrivals in 2017 have gone up 6.8 per cent from the year before, well above the 3.8 per cent forecast for the period from 2010 to 2020. More than half the arrivals, 51 per cent, travel to Europe.

In absolute numbers, France was the top destination worldwide, with 86.9 million visitors, followed by Spain (81.8 million).

China is the top spender, followed by the USA and Germany.

In 2017, 2 per cent of tourists travelled by train, 4 per cent by ship, 37 per cent by road and 57 per cent by air.