Top tourist destinations.....

Keep in mind that this list was probably prepared six months ago and cannot reflect recent changes.

I guess I always take any TripAdvisor list with a grain of salt. I am not sure how much logic goes into the results, how much popularity plays a role, or any inkling as to the criteria.

You see it more in the "Top ten restaurants in X City", but no reason that a grand list like this is any different.

The one that surprised me was Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Wonderful place, have spent a bunch of time there, would head back next week if I could...but top place in the World? no, not by any measure, just a smallish city with a beach, and the beach is not that great; plus the town is a far cry from "Beautiful"...though it has it's charm.

Thank you for posting the list! For anyone seeking destinations that aren’t the busiest, most popular spots, with inherent bigger crowds and likely more expensive lodging, maybe the list is “Places to Maybe NOT Go Right Now.” The lower on the list, maybe a place would make for a better visit. And somewhere not on the list would make for a visit on “the road less traveled.”

I pay no heed to anything Tripadvisor related now. It's full of paid listings, dubious reviews, reviews by people whose tastes bear no relation to mine so it wouldn't make sense to act on their recommendations. It's simply become a behemoth of unreliable information.

TripAdvisor is completely useless, and completely taken over by commercial interests. I don't go there, I don't read it, I pay it no attention. The only reason for the "Top 10" list is to get clicks, and eyeballs on ads.

@emma: OK, I will agree that it does list available restaurants/hotels, and I have used it for that. I'll go and look at it again.

I find Trip Advisor helpful if you pay attention to who is reviewing what. If they have only one review and it is either a rave or a pan, I don't pay attention to it. I also like their forum and have received really helpful advice. Again, it helps to pay attention who is on the forums. Some people promote certain businesses which they obviously work for. Spend enough time on their and it is really easy to distinguish between what the real advice/reviews are and the fake ones.

These “top XX” whatever lists are designed to entertain and as such an interesting read. Would not use one to plan my travel as I suspect the writer(s) have not personally been to most of the locations. I’ll always love “the big three” but increasingly go to smaller places.

Like Emma, I use TA for the reviews. Would not give them one centissimo for a booking.

I'm with Katey. I am on the TA forums even more than I am on here. I've gotten and given good advice but like anything you need to know the contributors to know if the advice is good.

I always wonder how they come up with these because no one asked me to vote, lol!! Do they go by page clicks? I'll get emails occasionally saying something like "537 people have viewed your recent review". I know that they count how many people have clicked on the page where the review is located NOT that they have actually opened and read my review so that method of counting is faulty in my book. Is this how they also determine what the top tourist destinations are? Are they going by bookings - because if so, nearly ALL the TA participants I "know" actively discourage people from booking anything thru TA or their sister platforms!

editing to add: I just did a quick search after I looked at the Top 25 Peoples Choice destinations for the US. Branson MO is on there as well as Asheville but none of the National Parks made it. Great Smoky Mountain NP has the highest visitation of any NP at 11.3 million as of 2016. Branson, according to the Branson Tourism Center has 7.2 million per year.

Like some others of you, I use TA hotel reviews for candid room/property shots taken by guests themselves vs heavily styled ad shots provided by the properties themselves. Also, reviewers with active histories, authentic voices and displaying reasonable tolerances (constant complainers are discarded) can be as useful there as they are here. Heck, I've seen some one-off reviews on this site that were written in such classic fake-review text that I'd be surprised if experienced forum users would view them as credible.

The TA travel forums are excellent and the local knowledge there vastly exceeds what you find on here.

TA's reviews - what people actually say about a hotel or tourist site - those I find useful. But the lists - you have to be kidding. They're saying that Thailand beats out NYC. Come on. On what criteria.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization data lists France as #1.
TripAdvisor lists The UK as #1.
I trust the United Nation’s data over TA’s.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_rankings

The UN lists France as the most visited (country).

TA lists London as the best (city).

They're hardly comparable lists.

Personally, I don't think I'll be taking advice on me hols from either organisation.

The UN lists countries, not cities.
When France is listed as #1, i think it’s safe to assume Paris is the #1 city most visited in the world.

But yes, the UN list and TA’s list are apples and oranges. One is legit data, the other is not.

I use Trip Advisor because I have a particular aversion to street/interior noise, and Trip Advisor reviews are a good way of avoiding hotels that have that problem, even if they are otherwise recommended in guidebooks.

Some may trip advisor as worthless but it is still fun to look at their lists.

I use TA mainly when researching hotels or to look for places to visit, but I also write reviews and photos for the places I visit, especially when the location is out of the way, in a small town, or just a place where tourists generally don’t visit. I too disregard most 1 and 5 star ratings. For complaints, I try to decide if it’s a real issue or just somebody being picky, or has unrealistic expectations. I was looking at one person’s profile the other day, and literally, she gave every place she reviewed 5 stars. I’ll disregard all her reviews. I think it’s funny when TA says someone liked a photo I posted with a review of an obscure sight, and that person doesn’t seem to have ever been in the states and seemingly no reason to look at the particular sight’s photos. So there is some funny stuff that does go on.

a day or two ago I got a list from Fodor's of the "best and worst" places to visit in 2020. Some of the TA top cities were on Fodor's worst places. Here's the link to the "avoid" list. And for anyone looking for somewhere different or too much time on their hands, here's a link to their "52 places" they recommend.

At least the Fodor's "No" list makes sense and they explain why they are including the place. Barcelona for example, while on many top lists, could use some relief, choosing to hit some other place in Spain would be a good choice. The only thing with the Fodor's list is it has the air of "Here are some places we can make a statement about" so the list does not include places like Venice that may have been on lists like this for years...old news does not really make interesting reading I guess.

For that matter, the "Go" list is an interesting look, a smattering of places that are less popular, but interesting. I like these lists in that they give some alternatives to the heavily visited places. Of course, some of these lists are the very things that lead those places to be on the "No" list in a few years.