The following chart indicates the number of tourists in three countries: France, Spain, and Japan between 1990 and 2020. Overall, France experienced a stable increase in the number of annual visitors and stood as the dominant trajectory, whereas Spain shared a similar growing pattern over the entire timeframe. Turning to Japan, number of tourists decreased over the period. Another striking feature is that, the gap between countries widened over the subsequent years.
France started the period as the most popular venue with about 45 million people, and witnessed a gradual increase to about 55 million in 2000. In 1990, the number of visitors in Spain were at 30 million, reaching 40 million after a decade. In the following decades Spain ultimately surpassed Japan with 50 million visitors in 2005, while France dominated with 60 million visitors. However, the disparity in the number of tourists declined by the end of the timeframe. Approximately 68 million tourists visited Spain, whereas 75 million people found France as their destination. In the ultimate year, France closed the timeframe with about 83 million people, while 75 million visits were recorded in Spain.
In contrast, Japan showed a mild fluctuation over the subsequent years. In 1990, Japan ranked the second most tourist visited country and surged to its peak of 43 million people after a decade. Following years, the number of tourists visited to Japan declined gradually. In 2010, about 38 million people visited to Japan, and saw a slight dip to 36 million in the following year. Japan recorded 34 million travels by the end of the timeframe. However, Japan was the only country whose number of annual visitors decreased.