# Number 1 Tourist Attraction in your Country



## GlasgowMan (Jan 11, 2006)

Post some pictures and information about the most popular tourist attraction in your county. Most popular determined by more visitors to that attraction than any other in the country.

*Scotland:* Kelvinegrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow attracts around 4 million visitors per year, making it Scotland’s most visited attraction.

One of the finest civic collections in Europe is housed within this Glasgow landmark. Here you can explore collections that include everything from fine and decorative arts to archaeology and the natural world. The number of individual items in the natural history department alone is vast. You can admire Sir Roger the Elephant or wonder at 300-million-year-old fossils of marine life from the Glasgow area.

The collection of arms and armour is one of the finest in the world, and in this country is equalled only by the Royal Armouries and by the Wallace Collection in London. Among its many treasures is the earliest near-complete field armour in the world (the famous 'Avant' armour, made in Milan c1440). Also in the collection is the impressive and unique armour for man and horse made for William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, c1550.

You can still see key works from the magnificent fine art collection, which includes many outstanding European artworks, at the McLellan Galleries, where they will be on display until the reopening of Kelvingrove in early 2006.

The distinctive building that houses the collections is located in the beautiful surroundings of Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow’s West End. It was opened in its present form in 1902 and remains the greatest achievement in the UK of the Victorian Municipal Museum Movement. The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum attracts more than one million visitors each year. It is the second most popular visitor attraction in Scotland and the most visited museum in the UK outside London.


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## Tiaren (Jan 29, 2006)

Hmm...difficult to say for Germany...
I would guess:
Cologne Cathedral (one of the most visited buildings in Germany, as I have read somewhere) or Castle Neuschwanstein (one of the most photographed buildings in whole Europe) or maybe the Reichstag (most popular tourist destination in Berlin) or perhaps the Deutsches Museum in Munich (most visited museum in Germany).
But I do not exactly know about that. How to find good information about it...?


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## GlasgowMan (Jan 11, 2006)

Tiaren said:


> Hmm...difficult to say for Germany...
> I would guess:
> Cologne Cathedral (one of the most visited buildings in Germany, as I have read somewhere) or Castle Neuschwanstein (one of the most photographed buildings in whole Europe) or maybe the Reichstag (most popular tourist destination in Berlin) or perhaps the Deutsches Museum in Munich (most visited museum in Germany).
> But I do not exactly know about that. How to find good information about it...?


For Scotland I found the info on the Scottish tourism website, you might get the same info on the German equivalent, if not maybe wikipedia could be worth a look.


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## SE9 (Apr 26, 2005)

UK's #1 fee-paying visitor attraction: The London Eye (4 million). The Eye is officially the world's most popular tourist attraction.

"British Airways London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel, opened in 1999 and is the largest observation wheel (a type of Ferris wheel) in the world. It stands 135 meters (443 feet) high on the western end of Jubilee Gardens, on the South Bank of the River Thames in Lambeth, London, England, between Westminster and Hungerford Bridges (Coordinates: 51°30′12″N, 00°07′11″W)."


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## Tiaren (Jan 29, 2006)

Germany's number one tourist destination (building) is the Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom):

"On a more secular level however the cathedral is one of Germany’s biggest tourist attractions, attracting about *three million visitors every year*. This makes it Germany’s most visited tourist site. It has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 1996." Goethe Institute





































It's the largest gothic structure in the world. Has the largest fassade of all churches in the world and the second highest towers of all churches (highest is in Ulm, Germany).

Construction of the Gothic church began in 1248 and took, with interruptions, more than 600 years to complete - it was finally finished in 1880. The two towers are 157 m tall, the cathedral is 144 m long and 86 m wide. The cathedral is dedicated to Saints Peter and Mary.
It was built on the site of a 4th century Roman temple, a square edifice known as the 'oldest cathedral' and commissioned by Maternus, the first Christian bishop of Cologne. A second church built on the site, the so-called "Old Cathedral", was completed in 818. This burned down on April 30, 1248.
The present cathedral was built to house the relics of the Magi, taken from Milan (Italy) by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and given to the Archbishop of Cologne, Rainald of Dassel in 1164. The foundation stone was laid on August 15, 1248, by Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden. The choir was consecrated in 1322. After this initial rapid progress, construction work gradually came to a standstill, and by the year 1560, only a torso had been built. 
It was only with 19th century romantic enthusiasm for the Middle Ages and the commitment of the Prussian Court that construction work resumed in 1842 with the addition of the towers and other substantial parts of the cathedral, mostly according to surviving medieval plans and drawings. Cologne Cathedral was built by civic effort; the Central-Dombauverein, founded in 1842, raised two thirds of the enormous costs (over US$ 1 billion in today's money), the Prussian state one third.
The completion of Germany's largest cathedral was celebrated as a national event in 1880, 632 years after construction had begun. The celebration was attended by Emperor Wilhelm I.

And then there is the Oktoberfest in Munich ( *about six million visitors per year*). But in this this thread it has to be a building, right?


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

Well we don't have palaces nor the biggest cathedrals or world famous skyscrapers, but we have ...
*












MOUNTAINS*

Matterhorn - one of the most famous peaks in the world









Aletsch Glacier - the biggest in the Alps (24km... and shrinking - in 70 years there will be NO more glaciers in the Alps) but...









...an UNESCO world heritage it is, here the other side: Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau









The highest peak in the Eastern Alps: Piz Bernina near St.Moritz-Pontresina


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## futureproof (Nov 2, 2006)

i always wondered which tourist attraction in the U.S. was the one that gathered the most visitors per year

rocky mountains?

yellowstone?

great cannyon?

niagara falls?

in the cities

brooklyn bridge?

statue of liberty?

the empire state building?


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## jacobboyer (Jul 14, 2005)

^^ It's the mall of america gets more than disneyworld graceland and the grand canyon combined.


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## Eureka! (Jun 7, 2006)

^^^ But they would be mainly locals not tourists wouldn't it???

Anyway for Australia there's a few.

Sydney Harbour Bridge/Opera House
Uluru
Great Barrier Reef


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## futureproof (Nov 2, 2006)

Eureka! said:


> ^^^ But they would be mainly locals not tourists wouldn't it???
> 
> Anyway for Australia there's a few.
> 
> ...


how´s tasmania doing with tourism compared to the ones you mentioned above?


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## Eureka! (Jun 7, 2006)

It had around 820,000 visitors in the past year and it's slowly going up. Not as much as most of the other states although it's getting a few more from the two 'Spirit of Tasmania' cruise ships. It's gone up 10% in the last year.


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## TampaMike (Sep 11, 2005)

I believe Disney World is the #1 tourist Attraction for the US. Then followed by the Statue of Liberty. I don't know who it goes to, but I believe for Canada it is the Niiagra Falls. Mexico is Cancun and then the Mayan Temples.

I'm surprise that the art's museum is #1 for Scotland. I would had thought it would be Edinburgh Castle


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

About the US: I think it depends on the country of origin of the tourists. Europeans tend to visit the musuems and make shopping in New York or travel to the Grand Canyon or drive through California while Latin Americans shop in Miami and the only good reason to visit the states is Disneyworld in Orlando.

But I think if you look at the numbers of foreign visitors I think it must be Grand Canyon (I hope :lol: )


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

NewPortRicheyGuy said:


> Mexico is Cancun and then the Mayan Temples.
> 
> I'm surprise that the art's museum is #1 for Scotland. I would had thought it would be Edinburgh Castle


What about Accapulco? And the #1 tourist city in the world is still Tijuana (more vistitors than Paris) - but what the people do there is maybe not really to be discribed as "tourism" literally :lol: But anyway!

And Scotland: What about Loch Ness, Stirling Castle, the Whiskey Trail and especially Palace Of Holyroodhouse?


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## Hviid (Jan 8, 2005)

Im guessing Nyhavn for Denmark?









Or maybe Amalienborg Palace, home of the danish queen:


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

Tivoli? Legoland??


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## Hviid (Jan 8, 2005)

I dont think Tivoli or Legoland is bigger or more popular than Nyhavn... maybe Amalienborg.... but whenever somebody advertises Copenhagen/Denmark they always show Nyhavn..


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## marching (May 24, 2006)

I like "Kecak" dance of Bali


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## algonquin (Sep 24, 2004)

for Canada, it's a toss-up between the following world-famous attractions:

the Big Nickel, Sudbury









Worlds Largest Mosquito, Upsala Ontario









The CN Tower









Starship Enterprise, William Shatners backyard, Vulcan Alberta


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## paw25694 (Nov 21, 2006)

Indonesia : Bali's Kuta Beach...


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