For travelers choosing vacation spots, it’s not such a large world after all.
Fewer than 200 locations account for the bulk of all leisure travel by Americans, according to writer and publisher Arthur Frommer, who has compiled a list of the places people travel.
“Tourism goes to far fewer places than people think,” he said. “It’s really that [193] that are the name of the game.”
The list, loosely based on World Tourism Organization statistics, is meant to include the destinations that account for 80 percent of all U.S. leisure travel.
Until recently, the list had been featured on the Frommer Budget Travel Web site, www.frommers.com.
Not surprisingly, the list is weighted toward Europe, where Frommer made his reputation writing budget travel guides.
Although North America is well represented, cities such as Atlanta, Dallas and Houston aren’t. These are popular for business and regional travel, but aren’t tourist destinations, Frommer said.
The list isn’t meant to be objective. It reflects the opinions of Frommer and Bob Fisher, the former editor-in-chief of Fodor’s travel guides.
“This is based on where we know people like to go, and statistics that say people go there,” Fisher said. “There are little treasures out there that aren’t on the list. We based it on popularity.”
Like every list, this leaves room for quibbles: Why is Stowe, Vt., listed and not Jackson, Wyo.? But taken together, it offers an eye-opening view of the places we go.
The largest number of destinations are in Europe, with Italy and France providing the most sites.
The United States accounts for half of the 79 places in North America — with Canada, the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico providing the rest. Thus, you’ll find Acapulco listed by Anchorage, Martinique by Memphis, and Vail by Vancouver.
Asia has 17 places stretching from Tel Aviv to Tokyo. South America has five, Australia and the Pacific four and Africa just two: Cape Town, South Africa, and Nairobi, Kenya.
“Most Americans go to Europe,” said Fisher. “Africa’s almost invisible.”
Frommer said two things account for the popularity of most of the sites.
“They either have a magnificent physical setting that makes them feasible for water sports or mountain sports, or they’re repositories of history,” he said.
It’s history that accounts for the popularity of Europe, Frommer said. Very few people go to Europe for recreational purposes.
“People travel in a large part to commune with the past, ” he said.
Several of the locations are what Frommer calls artificial destinations — places created to be tourist attractions. This includes resorts in the Caribbean and Mexico, such as Cancun, and gambling locations, such as Las Vegas. He expects more of these in the future.
He said it’s not unthinkable someone could visit all these places.
“A lot of Americans when they go over that list would immediately see they’ve been to 40 or 50 of them, and that would have never been said a generation ago,” he said.
Frommer also said that he expects the list will change in time. He has considered adding the islands of Fiji and locations in Senegal and Morocco.
Southern India is growing in popularity, and there are cities in China with millions of inhabitants that have no appreciable tourism traffic. But he’s making no predictions.
“Who knows whether Americans will start visiting the capitals of South America?”
Fisher said the list will always have its shortfalls.
“My hometown in Iowa — Burlington — it’s never going to be one of the 200 most important places in the world, though it’s very lovely.”
FAVORITE PLACES
Here is the Frommer Budget Travel list of the places U.S. travelers go:
NORTH AMERICA
Acapulco
Albuquerque
Anchorage
Anguilla
Antigua
Aruba
Atlantic City
Bahamas
Banff/Lake Louise, Alberta
Barbados
Belize
Bermuda
Big Island of Hawaii
Bonaire
Boston
Branson, Mo.
British Virgin Islands
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Cancun, Mexico
Cayman Islands
Charleston, S.C.
Chicago
Cozumel, Mexico
Curacao, Netherlands Antilles
Denver
Dominican Republic
Ft. Lauderdale
Guadeloupe
Guanajuato, Mexico
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Honolulu
Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Mexico
Jamaica
Kauai, Hawaii
Key West
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Martinique
Maui, Hawaii
Memphis
Mexico City
Miami
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Nashville
New Orleans
New York City
Orlando
Ottawa
Palm Beach, Fla.
Palm Springs, Calif.
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Prince Edward Island, Canada
Puerto Rico
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Quebec City
Reno
St. Augustine, Fla.
St. Barthelemy
St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands
St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia
St. Martin
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Salt Lake City
San Antonio
San Francisco
San Jose, Costa Rica
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Santa Fe
Stowe, Vt.
Tampa
Taos, N.M.
Toronto, Ontario
Trinidad and Tobago
Tucson, Ariz.
Vail, Colo.
Vancouver
Washington, D.C.
SOUTH AMERICA
Buenos Aires
Caracas, Venezuela
Lima, Peru
Montevideo, Uruguay
Rio de Janeiro
EUROPE
Aix-en-Provence, France
Amalfi, Italy
Antwerp, Belgium
Arles, France
Assisi, Italy
Athens
Avignon, France
Barcelona, Spain
Bath, England
Berchtesgaden, Germany
Berlin
Bologna, Italy
Bordeaux, France
Brindisi, Italy
Bristol, England
Brugge, Belgium
Budapest, Hungary
Cambridge, England
Cannes, France
Cardiff, Wales
Cherbourg, France
Chester, England
Copenhagen
Cork, Ireland
Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy
Cracow, Poland
Delphi, Greece
Dublin
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Edinburgh, Scotland
Ferrara, Italy
Florence, Italy
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Geneva
Genoa, Italy
Ghent, Belgium
Glasgow, Scotland
Granada, Spain
Hamburg, Germany
Ibiza, Spain
Innsbruck, Austria
Interlaken, Switzerland
Istanbul
London
Lucerne, Switzerland
Lyon, France
Madrid
Malaga, Spain
Mallorca, Spain
Milan, Italy
Monaco
Moscow
Munich, Germany
Naples, Italy
Nice, France
Oberammergau, Germany
Oslo
Oxford, England
Palermo, Italy
Paris
Patras, Greece
Pisa, Italy
Positano, Italy
Prague, Czech Republic
Rome
Rothenburg, Germany
Salzburg, Austria
San Gimignano, Italy
Seville, Spain
Siena, Italy
Sorrento, Italy
Stockholm
Stratford-upon-Avon, England
Taormina, Italy
Tours, France
Trieste, Italy
Valencia, Spain
Valletta, Malta
Venice
Verona, Italy
Vicenza, Italy
York, England
Zermatt, Switzerland
Zurich
OCEANIA
Auckland, New Zealand
Melbourne, Australia
Sydney
Tahiti
ASIA
Bali, Indonesia
Bangkok
Bombay
Beijing
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kyoto, Japan
Manila
New Delhi
Seoul
Shanghai
Singapore
Taipei, Taiwan
Tel Aviv
Tokyo
AFRICA
Cape Town, South Africa
Nairobi, Kenya
