Venice revealed as the most popular European city for tourists

A recent study from the airline, Wizz Air, has revealed that Venice is the European city with the largest number of tourists compared to locals.

With the Christmas holidays fast approaching, Wizz Air wanted to find out which European city has the highest and lowest concentration of tourists. To do this, they analysed the number of visitors per 100 locals, comparing traveller data to population and creating two rankings according to their findings.

Speaking on the study, Andras Rado, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications at Wizz Air said:

”Our investigation into the European cities with the highest number of visitors per 100 locals yielded some interesting results. Overall, it was fascinating to see so many unique destinations make up the top 15.

”Comparing 2022 data with statistics before the pandemic was also incredibly valuable, allowing us to visualise how tourism numbers have changed over the past few years. We also found it incredibly useful to examine both ends of the spectrum, investigating the least crowded cities throughout Europe. Overall, we hope this study has helped inspire travellers when deciding on their next trip abroad, this autumn or beyond.”

Firstly, let’s take a look at the top five European cities in terms of visitors compared to locals:

1. Venice, Italy

In first place is the Italian city of Venice. The scenic city is known for its canals and rich culture and was visited by 6,474,186 people in 2022.

In 2019, 5,590,500 people visited the popular holiday destination meaning the number of tourists has grown by 15.8% according to 2022’s statistics – an encouraging discovery.

2. Heraklion, Greece

Next, ranking in second place is Heraklion. The Greek city is located on the island of Crete and saw 6,800,000 people visiting the city during 2022, making it the 12th most visited city last year.

The number of tourists in Heraklion has increased by an impressive 28.6% since 2019’s figures and continues to be a go-to option for travellers, particularly throughout summer.

3. Porto, Portugal

Ranking in third place is the Portuguese city of Porto. The city saw a total of 3.118 million visitors throughout 2022, making it the 37th most visited location.

The number of international visitors in Porto has increased by over a quarter (25.1%) in comparison to 2019’s statistics – highlighting how popular the city is as a tourist destination.

4. Nice, France

Moving on, the French city of Nice finished in fourth place. In total, the city welcomed 3.9million tourists throughout 2022 and was the 29th most visited city.

Since 2019, the number of people visiting Nice has more than doubled, with 51.8% more visitors in 2022 compared to three years previous.

5. Antalya, Türkiye

Lastly, finishing off the top five is the Turkish city of Antalya. Overall, Antalya received 12.8million tourist visitors during 2022 and was the 12th most visited city – highlighting the popularity of the Turkish city.

Comparing data to 2019 reveals that the number of tourists has decreased by 4% since 2019. However, Antalya has remained an extremely popular destination for travellers.

Overall, it was incredibly intriguing to visualise the most and least popular cities in Europe. We may be leaving summer, but autumn provides a great opportunity to explore a brand new location, without the usual rush that comes with travelling in the warmer months.