The only reason it looks smaller on that map than in real life is because Australia has such a low population density. Most of Australia is empty desert. The tourism size is actually quite good considering the small population and the remoteness.

Color me stoopid.
I have a problem with maps. I always skipped geography in HS coz I knew I was prolly gonna fail anyway. I can't even follow Goggle map directions. sheesh.....

I agree .... FL should be 1/3 of the map if they just count the people going to Disney :lol: and if they count all the &*(^(* snowbirds it would be the whole map.

So my little mini vacation this weekend to Captiva doesn't count, huh? I feel cheated!

looks like africa is the anus of the world in this picture. (just by the look of it im not making a political or social coment)

Africa? Probably once the revolution season is over, folks will start going back.

africa needs a disneyland.

If any U.S. state is allowed to argue about their size, that would be Hawaii. Probably, they don't represent popularity on the sub-national level here, although doesn't .

Are the islands of Mauritius (red blob in the Indian Ocean) and the Falklands (green, in the So Atlantic) really such popular tourist sites? They look to be about the same size as Costa Rica maybe.

Damn, that big. I was looking for something small :right:

It wouldn't help near as much as all the Viagra flowing into Florida.:D

OMG I have just seen the alcohol and cigarette imports v exports. The UK is getting the rest of the world drunk (I'm assuming it is booze we are exporting as we are not known for our tobacco plantations...we hardly import any!!)

meat and cereal exports are australias thang.

we are feeding the world breakfast and beef

Maps of this type, where the area is scaled to match some value, are called "cartograms." Most cartograms you see will have the distortion that these maps have, where the original shapes and angles of the country are kinda lost when a lot of scaling has to be done.

In the last couple years, a new technique for generating cartograms was discovered that borrows techinques from the simulation of gaseous diffusion. This new technique is much faster than the old, and also has the advantage of a greater sense of the original shape. You can see cartograms done with the new technique here: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/

A description of the new technique (along with some cartograms) can be found here: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040828/bob8.asp

I'm surprised by the amount of ocean tourism!