Put the source to work.
Compare outbound travel markets at a stated date. Read which countries and territories reported an observation before deciding what the departure totals can tell you.
Why it matters
Outbound travel is one way people connect places. It can help frame visitor-market questions when coverage and counting rules are clear.
Which outbound travel market are you studying?
Imagine a destination wants to welcome visitors from another country. Outbound departure totals can help show the scale of travel from that place. The next question is where those trips go. A large departure total alone does not show demand for your destination.
The reviewed source has observations for 130 countries and territories over 1995–2024, with only 48 reporting a 2024 value. Use a shared year and name the covered comparison group. Pair departures with the visitor-market guide and destination-specific evidence before designing a campaign.
Three steps you can take
- Choose a common year and show which places have a value for that year.
- Keep missing observations visible rather than placing uncovered countries at the bottom of a ranking.
- Ask for destination, purpose, season, spending, and route evidence that fits the visitors you hope to reach.
Read the source: World Bank: international tourism departures. This reference explains the source or research context; the inventory figures below come from the reviewed NDS package.
Know what you are looking at.
- Observations
- 2,425
- Countries and territories
- 130
- History
- 1995–2024
- Geographies with 2024 observations
- 48
Use these figures to understand the package reviewed on October 20, 2026. The results section below tells you which comparisons you can explore here and which still need source work. A source guide is different from a complete table of published observations.
How to use the evidence
Compare a shared year and state exactly which places have observations.
Retain uncovered places as missing rather than assigning them zero departures.
Available results and rankings
- Country pages in the World Places Directory show every available annual observation for the 130 covered geographies.
- The country reference API preserves the available years alongside their country summaries.
Coverage and limits
- Departures count trips, not unique people.
- These are not trips specifically to the United States.
Other source guides
Commercial Diplomacy Index™ · National Data System · Source and method guide · October 20, 2026