Overanalyzing America’s Top 25 Tourist Sites

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  05.21.08 | 10:51 AM ET

imageForbes Traveler has put together a slide show of America’s 25 most visited tourist attractions, and—to this Canadian’s eye, at least—the list contained a few surprises. Or I guess I should say, the surprise was what didn’t make the cut: some of the most iconic “American” sites.

Take New York City, for example. Times Square took the No. 1 slot with 35 million visitors last year, but its neighbors, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty (arguably two of the most well-known images of American-ness ever), didn’t make the list. The same goes for the renowned National Parks system. Only a handful of the wilderness areas under the protection of the National Parks Service showed up in the top 25: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, at No. 9; Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, at No. 16; the Grand Canyon, at No. 20; and Cape Cod National Seashore, at No. 22. What about Yellowstone? Yosemite and the rest of California’s parks? Or the entire Pacific Northwest?

And, hey, doesn’t anyone go to Graceland or Mount Rushmore these days?

Meanwhile, seven of the 25 slots are filled by theme parks, and two more sites—the Las Vegas strip and the Atlantic City boardwalk—could probably be considered honorary theme parks. Only two museums—The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History, both in New York City—are on the list. Salt Lake City’s Temple Square got half a million more visitors than Oahu’s Waikiki Beach last year. Is anyone else as perplexed as I am?

I’m not looking to make some sweeping and unfair generalization about the rise of theme parks and the decline of museums and what that says about America or the people who travel there. All I’m saying is, if you sent me back through time to grade school and had me draw pictures of the 10 places I think of when I picture the United States of America, only one of my smudgy-crayon masterpieces—the Grand Canyon—would show up in the Forbes slide show. It seems that there’s a huge disconnect between the country’s most emblematic sites and its most popular ones. What, if anything, does it mean?

Maybe people’s travel patterns are changing. Maybe kids draw pictures of the Statue of Liberty and then demand visits to SeaWorld. Or maybe my expectations—that the most iconic sites would be the most popular—are the problem: After all, would Yellowstone still be Yellowstone if it saw 30 million visitors every year?

Forbes Traveler has a text introduction to the slide show, and an explanation of their methodology, here.

Photo by The Jacobin via Flick (Creative Commons)


Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


2 Comments for Overanalyzing America’s Top 25 Tourist Sites

Lorraine 05.21.08 | 9:51 PM ET

I agree with you that the Forbes Traveler piece is a bit off (that’s putting it gently). First, I think it comes down to the question of what, exactly, constitutes a tourist attraction or site in the first place. Is a tourist attraction necessarily a cheesy, commercial entity? Or does it encompass historic sites, culturally important venues, etc.? Also, the logic behind the choices in the story seems to be pretty skewed. I mean, how can you put the entirety of the Cape Cod seashore on the same list as a single theme park?

As for missing attractions, I was struck that Alcatraz and the Mall of America didn’t make the cut.

Accommodation Split 05.26.08 | 12:50 AM ET

Well, if New York City made it to number 1, doesn’t that include Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty already? I don’t see any reason for either of them on a seperate list.

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