America’s - Ranking the most popular cultural, natural, and entertainment

The Forbes Traveler 25 Most Visited U.S. Tourist Attractions list pits the spectacles of nature against the drama of the man-made. While our list includes the thundering falls of Niagara, it also features the harrowing water-chutes of Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean.

Our research suggests that tourists appreciate renowned art collections and sunny beaches in equal measure. Each year, roughly the same number of visitors (about 4.5 million in 2006) explore the hallowed halls of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art as wile away their days off on the sands of Honolulu’s Waikiki Beach.

Theme parks, though, make a strong case for tourists’ taste for the artificial. As evidenced in our survey of the top global tourist attractions, the industry energized by Disney dominates the domestic tourism landscape as well. Seven of our 25 attractions are amusement parks; Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, remains top-mouse in the theme-park world, with 17.1 million visitors in 2007.

Christian Aaen, principal with Economics Research Associates, which recently released its third annual Attraction Attendance Report for amusement parks, says Disney is “still the strongest brand in the theme-park industry, especially for families."

The original Disney theme park, in Anaheim, Calif., opened in 1955 and built what Aaen calls a “destination complex”—an agglomeration of hotels and adjacent attractions that draws in tourists for prolonged stays. Aaen says Disney was the first to figure out that, “instead of selling seven hours, it’s better to sell seven days.”