What are the world’s worst tourist attractions? A study of the world’s most famous landmarks and the comments left by visitors has ranked a major Parisian monument among the three worst tourist attractions. A place in New York and another in Berlin came in 1st and 2nd place, while a museum in the capital came in twelfth!
The most disappointing tourist sites
It’s a reflex when traveling abroad: visit the must-see tourist attractions first! Each destination has its own sites of interest, attracting thousands, even millions of visitors! Who hasn’t climbed to the top of the Empire State Building in New York, walked the Great Wall of China or visited Buckingham Palace in London? And these sites, which are must-sees for tourists, can either dazzle or disappoint them!
A study carried out by Preply, an online language course platform, looked at the “negative” comments left by these disappointed visitors on online review sites! The company analyzed half-hearted and even highly critical feedback from the 80 most important tourist sites on the planet, to determine which were the biggest “tourist traps“.
The result: two of the capital’s most emblematic sites feature in the top 20 most overrated destinations, and one is even in 3rd place!
The Eiffel Tower and a major Paris museum in the top 20
Here’s a study that won’t please the Iron Lady and a famous Parisian museum. These two sites, which attract millions of visitors every year (6.3 in 2023 for the former, 8.9 for the latter), are also among the 20 most disappointing tourist attractions in the world.
It’s the emblem of Paris, one of the most photographed Parisian monuments, and yet it disappoints! Ranked as the world’s third worst tourist attraction, the Eiffel Tower is far from satisfying everyone who comes to visit. Its reputation seems to suffer mainly from the difficulty of accessing it. Long and numerous queues, overcrowding – these are just some of the grievances voiced in comments!
And what about the Musée du Louvre, in twelfth place? Here again, it’s the sheer number of visitors that seems to spoil the experience!
Apart from these two Parisian sites, tourists are also generally disappointed by the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles or the Manneken-Pis in Brussels. And guess who came in 1st and 2nd place? Times Square in New York and Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin!
Find out more about the study on the world’s worst tourist attractions