Tourism: How many people are traveling, and where are they going?

Tourism can be important for both the travelers and the people in the countries they visit.

For visitors, traveling can increase their understanding of and appreciation for people in other countries and their cultures. And in many countries, many people rely on tourism for their income. In some, it is one of the largest industries.

But tourism also has externalities: it contributes to global carbon emissions and can encroach on local environments and cultures.

To help you understand the scale of tourism and some of its impacts, I recently updated more than 20 of our interactive charts with the latest data from the UN Tourism Statistics Database.