Europe Tourism

Tourism in Europe is very popular and common.  Europe has three major cities that are visited by tourists every year, Paris, London, and Rome.  These cities are the three most visited cities by order. The rich culture heritage cities are not the only reason why people flock to Europe for a visit or vacation, there are also beautiful mountain ranges that cover most of the southern part of Europe; including The Alps, Pyrenees Mountains, Carpathian Mountains, and the Dinaric Range, these mountains were key geographical areas that were used in historical invasions.  Many times The Alps, also known the "Magnificent Traitor" to the Italians, was conquered and crossed by many armies and invaders so they could enter Italy.  There are also a lot of ancient castles(chateaux) that lay throughout Europe, like the Palace of Versailles in Ile-de-France.  Plantations of grape vines used for wine, grape juice, table grapes, and raisins are known as vineyards, also visited.

In 2007 France was the most popular tourist destination in the world, attracting 81.9 million foreigners, which is more than Frances population.  This years total is tourists is not including people traveling through, it is people that are staying more than 24 hours and less than a year. Tourism in France puts up 6% of the countries income.(Tourism in France- wikipedia).

London is another one of the worlds most visited cities, attractions including the Buckingham Palace which is still in use today, the Tower of London, and Tower bridge(London Bridge).  Another common thing to do when visiting London is to visit the chains of museums. There is also the British Library that has old classic manuscripts such as Alice in Wonderland. Tourists help London with 10% of their gross income, as well as helping people get jobs, about 13% of the workforce. Tourism in London-Wikipedia

Rome is a very important place for tourist to visit because it holds a fragile piece of history that impacted the world of religion.  There you are able to find remains of the Roman Empire, like the Colosseum, palaces, churches, the aqueducts, and buildings inside the central civilization of early Rome. Besides the empires history there are also many different museums to visit, especially the Vatican Museum, which possess sculpture and masterpieces of Renaissance art. Rome averages 7-10 million tourists a year. Tourism in Rome- wikipedia

Other References:
World Regional Geography 10th edition; Douglas L. Johnson, Viola Haarmann, Merrill L. Johnson, and David L. Clawson.