World Heritage Site

Our connection ‘One Million Visitors or More’ is popular: it links 107 WHS that are visited yearly by large numbers of tourists. Looking at the years given with the explanations, it seems that the last major update of this list was done between 2015 and 2017. It did not make much sense to update it during the COVID years (2020-2022), but now, in 2025, with data across the ‘normal’ years 2023 and 2024 available, I have gone for a full makeover.

Update process

Out of the 107 connected sites, I found adjusted numbers from the ‘After COVID’-era for 90 WHS. Unfortunately, often, there is very little precise info available. A notorious example is the Cologne Cathedral, whose official website has shown ‘6 million’ for ages. And despite the country’s love for administration, data on Indian WHS are hard to get. On the other side of the spectrum, the UK publishes nice statistics every year via the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA). 

In the connection descriptions, I have kept the old data as well, as it is interesting to see the trends over time (as long as they stay over one million visitors).

Findings

When we compare the numbers pre- and post-COVID, the overall findings are that (a) the numbers have at least returned to the levels before 2020, and (b) most are in the same range or slightly higher than before.

Some other trends can be seen as well:

• European WHS do well; maybe European tourists stayed closer to home right after COVID?
• Several US WHS see lower numbers than before. Their cost may be an issue.
• The already very high numbers in China keep on growing and growing. Overall, the East Asian sites do well due to strong domestic tourism from their large urban populations. Photo 1 shows the entrance to Zhangjiajie NP (Wulingyuan) on a quiet morning. 
• Türkiye does well also. Some sites grew due to reopenings (Selimiye Mosque), or the temporary free entrance to the Hagia Sophia after being considered a mosque again. The investments in big site museums also seem to pan out, as Troy is expected to rise beyond 1 million in 2025 as well. I wonder what the sharp rises in entrance fees over the years 2024-2025 will do.

We also have seen the introduction of daily visitor caps at these sites: Acropolis, Forbidden City (Imperial Palace & Beijing Central Axis WHS), Kulangsu, Mogao Caves, and West Norwegian Fjords.

One would expect lower numbers at the following sites that have been affected by conflict, war and other damage:

• Bagan (Myanmar) has seen an unexpected rise from 2 million in 2019 to 3.4 million in 2022, despite the military junta taking over in 2021 and the subsequent civil war. 
• Shuri Castle, one of the Gusuku sites, burned down in 2019, but numbers have rebounded to 1.44 million in 2023 (1.8 million in 2015).
• The two main Russian tourist magnets, the Kremlin Musea and the Hermitage, have seen a drop from 2 to 1 million and 4 to 2.8 million, respectively.
• There are no new numbers for the Kyiv Cathedral and Lavra, but considering the conflict surrounding the Lavra, they probably will be lower than before. 

Oddities are the two hugely popular local pilgrimage sites on the List: Pavagadh Hill in India (photo 3 shows the queue) and Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka. Any numbers given here seem to be guesses, but crowded they certainly are.

Risers, Fallers and New entries

The strongest risers are the Acropolis, from 1.475 million visitors in 2016 to 8.4 million in 2023, Versailles, from 7.5 to 15 million; Rome’s Colosseum from 6 to 12 million; and Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia from 3.7 million in 2019 to 13.6 million in 2022. 

The only one I found falling below 1 million during this time frame is the Everglades: from 1.018 million in 2017 to 810189 in 2023. I also doubt the numbers of the Amphitheater of El Jem, since tourism to Tunisia has severely declined (but I could not find an updated source).

New entries since 2020 are the newly inscribed sites of Beijing Central Axis, the Getbol and Göbekli Tepe.