A tourist attraction is a place where tourists, foreign and domestic, normally visit. Some examples include famous historical places, zoos, museums and art galleries, botanical gardens, buildings and structures (e.g., castles, libraries, former prisons, skyscrapers, bridges), national parks and forests, theme parks and carnivals, ethnic enclave communities, historic trains, cultural events and rare oddities.

Tourist attractions are also created to capitalize on unusual and unexplained, even perhaps sensational, phenomena such as a supposed UFO crash site near Roswell, New Mexico and the alleged Loch Ness monster sighting near Inverness, Scotland. Reported ghost sightings in historic establishments also make tourist attractions.

Local ethnic community leaders may attempt to promote ethnic communities as tourist attractions as well to increase revenue and cultural venues, such as the Vietnamese community of Little Saigon in southern California in the United States and the black British neighborhood of Brixton borough of London. However, tourist attractions tend to focus on the superficial aspects of diverse cultures.

Owners and marketers of attractions usually advertise tourist attractions on billboards along the side of highways and roadways, especially in remote areas. Also, many tourist attractions have free promotional brochures and flyers in information centers, fast food restaurants, motel lobbies, and rest areas. These brochures are usually a road map promoting many businesses.

Many tourist attractions have the tendency of being tacky. Tourist attractions tend to overprice their goods and services (such as admission, food, and souvenirs) in order to exploit and profit from gullible tourists. For example, prices for a roll of film and disposable cameras are higher at a shop in tourist attractions than at a regular store. In addition, many, if not all, restaurants and cafés located in popular tourist areas tend to automatically add a high service charge (i.e., gratuities) onto the bill. Hence, these places are commonly known as tourist traps.

Many tourist attractions have a higher concentration of hotels and motels. Inflated room rates of lodging establishments closest to the attraction should always be expected as well.

Popular Tourist Attractions

Buildings and Structures

• CN Tower - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Eiffel Tower - Paris, France
• Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco, California, USA
• Great Wall of China - China
• Space Needle - Seattle, Washington, USA
• White House - Washington, D.C., USA
• The World's Largest Thermometer - Baker, California, USA

Ethnic Communities

• Asia West - Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
• Chinatown - Various locations, with San Francisco and Vancouver Chinatowns being some of the larger and popular ones in North America.
• Lancaster County - Pennsylvania Dutch country, USA

Theme parks

• Cedar Point - Sandusky, Ohio, USA
• Disneyland
  • Anaheim, California, USA
  • Paris, France
  • Tokyo, Japan
• Disney World and Epcot - Orlando, Florida, USA
• Knoebels - Elysburg, Pennsylvania, USA
• Knott's Berry Farm - Buena Park, California, USA

National Parks

• Grand Canyon - Arizona, USA
• Yellowstone National Park - Montana, Wyoming, USA
• Yosemite National Park - California, USA

Museums

• Ripley's Believe It or Not (wax museum) - various locations
• Smithsonian Institution - Washington, DC

Gardens

• Butchart Gardens - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• Huntington Gardens - San Marino, California, USA
• Magnolia Gardens - Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Streets

• Las Vegas Strip - Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
• Lombard Street - San Francisco, California, USA
• Rodeo Drive - Beverly Hills, California, USA

See also: List of popular tourist regions