Markets
How Much Money Do Tourists Spend in Each Country?
How Much Money Do Tourists Spend in Each Country?
There’s so much to see in this world.
From the Grand Canyon to the Ancient Pyramids of Giza, there is at least one mind-blowing attraction to discover anywhere you go. And the countries that have these great tourist attractions? They are happy to see you bring your tourist dollars into their borders.
The question is: just how many dollars are spent, and where?
Today’s map comes to us from HowMuch.net, a cost information site, and it shows the countries that rake in the most tourist dollars each year.
Here’s the top five countries:
- The United States brings in $220.1 billion each year from tourists. The country is large and diverse – it offers the bustle of big cities like New York and San Francisco, but it’s also home to cities known for their history or culture, like New Orleans or Washington, DC. Tourists can experience the beaches of SoCal, the madness of Vegas, the serenity of Oregon, the wilderness of Alaska, or the music of Nashville.
- France is a distant second place at $66.8 billion per year. The biggest destinations include Paris, the famous wine regions of Champagne or Bordeaux, the Renaissance city of Lyon, the quayside of Marseilles, or the French Riviera capital of Nice.
- Spain isn’t far behind France, receiving $65.1 billion of tourism expenditures each year. The biggest country on the Iberian Peninsula has more to offer than trips to Ibiza and tapas in Seville. The architecture of Barcelona is magnificent, Madrid is bustling, and there are many hidden cultural gems to be found, such as Moorish monuments and castles throughout the south.
- The United Kingdom has a diverse array of treasures, and that’s why it rakes in $62.8 billion from tourism per year. Tourists can explore the scotch and Highlands of Scotland, or succumb to London calling. The countryside of Wales, the Roman-built pools of Bath, or the fried night foods of Edinburgh all have appeal. This was the home of the Beatles and Shakespeare, after all.
- China tops out Germany by $1 billion to be the fifth-most visited country in terms of tourist dollars spent, with expenditures of $56.9 billion. This is perhaps the biggest surprise on the list – people know China is emerging as the world’s biggest population center and economy, but many do not know it is also a tourist mecca. China gets millions of visitors each year from surrounding Asian countries like South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Mongolia. The country also receives significant traffic from Americans and Russians. The Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, the Three Gorges Dam, and many other sites are high on the list of things to see.
Mining
Ranked: The World’s Top Diamond Mining Countries, by Carats and Value
Who are the leaders in rough diamond production and how much is their diamond output worth?
Creator Program
Ranked: World Diamond Mining By Country, Carat, and Value
Only 22 countries in the world engage in rough diamond production—also known as uncut, raw or natural diamonds—mining for them from deposits within their territories.
This chart, by Sam Parker illustrates the leaders in rough diamond production by weight and value. It uses data from Kimberly Process (an international certification organization) along with estimates by Dr. Ashok Damarupurshad, a precious metals and diamond specialist in South Africa.
Rough Diamond Production, By Weight
Russia takes the top spot as the world’s largest rough diamond producer, mining close to 42 million carats in 2022, well ahead of its peers.
Russia’s large lead over second-place Botswana (24.8 million carats) and third-ranked Canada (16.2 million carats) indicates that the country’s diamond production is circumventing sanctions due to the difficulties in tracing a diamond’s origin.
Here’s a quick breakdown of rough diamond production in the world.
| Rank | Country | Rough Diamond Production (Carats) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇷🇺 Russia | 41,923,910 |
| 2 | 🇧🇼 Botswana | 24,752,967 |
| 3 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 16,249,218 |
| 4 | 🇨🇩 DRC | 9,908,998 |
| 5 | 🇿🇦 South Africa | 9,660,233 |
| 6 | 🇦🇴 Angola | 8,763,309 |
| 7 | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | 4,461,450 |
| 8 | 🇳🇦 Namibia | 2,054,227 |
| 9 | 🇱🇸 Lesotho | 727,737 |
| 10 | 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone | 688,970 |
| 11 | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | 375,533 |
| 12 | 🇧🇷 Brazil | 158,420 |
| 13 | 🇬🇳 Guinea | 128,771 |
| 14 | 🇨🇫 Central African Republic | 118,044 |
| 15 | 🇬🇾 Guyana | 83,382 |
| 16 | 🇬🇭 Ghana | 82,500 |
| 17 | 🇱🇷 Liberia | 52,165 |
| 18 | 🇨🇮 Cote D'Ivoire | 3,904 |
| 19 | 🇨🇬 Republic of Congo | 3,534 |
| 20 | 🇨🇲 Cameroon | 2,431 |
| 21 | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | 1,665 |
| 22 | 🇲🇱 Mali | 92 |
| Total | 120,201,460 |
Note: South Africa’s figures are estimated.
As with most other resources, (oil, gold, uranium), rough diamond production is distributed unequally. The top 10 rough diamond producing countries by weight account for 99.2% of all rough diamonds mined in 2022.
Diamond Mining, by Country
However, higher carat mined doesn’t necessarily mean better value for the diamond. Other factors like the cut, color, and clarity also influence a diamond’s value.
Here’s a quick breakdown of diamond production by value (USD) in 2022.
| Rank | Country | Rough Diamond Value (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇧🇼 Botswana | $4,975M |
| 2 | 🇷🇺 Russia | $3,553M |
| 3 | 🇦🇴 Angola | $1,965M |
| 4 | 🇨🇦 Canada | $1,877M |
| 5 | 🇿🇦 South Africa | $1,538M |
| 6 | 🇳🇦 Namibia | $1,234M |
| 7 | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | $424M |
| 8 | 🇱🇸 Lesotho | $314M |
| 9 | 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone | $143M |
| 10 | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | $110M |
| 11 | 🇨🇩 DRC | $65M |
| 12 | 🇧🇷 Brazil | $30M |
| 13 | 🇱🇷 Liberia | $18M |
| 14 | 🇨🇫 Central African Republic | $15M |
| 15 | 🇬🇾 Guyana | $14M |
| 16 | 🇬🇳 Guinea | $6M |
| 17 | 🇬🇭 Ghana | $3M |
| 18 | 🇨🇲 Cameroon | $0.25M |
| 19 | 🇨🇬 Republic of Congo | $0.20M |
| 20 | 🇨🇮 Cote D'Ivoire | $0.16M |
| 21 | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | $0.10M |
| 22 | 🇲🇱 Mali | $0.06M |
| Total | $16,290M |
Note: South Africa’s figures are estimated. Furthermore, numbers have been rounded and may not sum to the total.
Thus, even though Botswana only produced 59% of Russia’s diamond weight in 2022, it had a trade value of nearly $5 billion, approximately 1.5 times higher than Russia’s for the same year.
Another example is Angola, which is ranked 6th in diamond production, but 3rd in diamond value.
Both countries (as well as South Africa, Canada, and Namibia) produce gem-quality rough diamonds versus countries like Russia and the DRC whose diamonds are produced mainly for industrial use.
Which Regions Produce the Most Diamonds in 2022?
Unsurprisingly, Africa is the largest rough diamond producing region, accounting for 51% of output by weight, and 66% by value.
| Rank | Region | Share of Rough Diamond Production (%) | Share of Rough Diamond Value (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Africa | 51.4% | 66.4% |
| 2 | Europe | 34.9% | 32.9% |
| 3 | North America | 13.5% | 52.8% |
| 4 | South America | 0.2% | 2.4% |
However diamond mining in Africa is a relatively recent phenomenon, fewer than 200 years old. Diamonds had been discovered—and prized—as far back as 2,000 years ago in India, later on spreading west to Egyptian pharaohs and the Roman Empire.
By the start of the 20th century, diamond production on a large scale took off: first in South Africa, and decades later in other African countries. In fact between 1889–1959, Africa produced 98% of the world’s diamonds.
And in the latter half of the 20th century, the term blood diamond evolved from diamonds mined in African conflict zones used to finance insurgency or crime.
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