President Obama's five-day tour of Kenya and Ethiopia cost taxpayers $5.99 million in airfare alone and ties him for the most traveled president with Bill Clinton, according to a new National Taxpayers Union Foundation analysis.

The report -- "Still Up in the Air: The Uncertain Costs of Presidential Travel Abroad" -- provided to Secrets shows that Obama and Clinton made 41 international trips by their seventh year as president. France and Mexico have been Obama's top destinations, with five visits each -- one more than his four visits to the troops in Afghanistan.

The taxpayer watchdog group determined that Obama's trip from Joint Base Andrews to Nairobi, Kenya, then to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia then home today has a total flight time of 29 hours.

President Obama in Ethiopia. AP Photo

The Air Force recently told Judicial Watch that it cost $206,337 an hour to fly Air Force One, putting the price just for Obama's jet at $5,983,773, said NTUF. Not included are the many millions more for lodging, security, communications and the prepositioning of cars, vans and aircraft for the president.

Study author and policy analyst Michael Tasselmyer said, "While flight costs can be estimated, the rest of the expenses associated with travel, including security, lodging, food, and more, not just for the president and Air Force One, but additional staff and airplanes, remains opaque."

For example, Clinton once took over 500 staffers with him on a trip to China, but those costs were never made public.

Tasselmyer added: "Where in the world is Barack Obama remains the easy question, the difficult question for taxpayers is: What in the world is the cost of the travel?"

The USASpending.gov website, however, did reveal some expenditures:

-- $22,759 for copiers in Ethiopia.

-- $4,500 for printers in Ethiopia.

-- $6,026 for "basic voice phones" in Ethiopia.

His report compared the travel of presidents back to Ronald Reagan. At this stage of their presidencies, Reagan had made the fewest foreign trips, 21, followed by George W. Bush at 38 and the 41 by Clinton and Obama. Former President George H.W. Bush isn't on the list because he served just one four-year term.

Clinton stayed overseas longer, spending 178 days on the road during his 41 trips compared to 161 for Obama, just four more than Bush.

The numbers will only get higher for Obama since presidents typically boost overseas travel in their second term as they turn to foreign policy to burnish their legacy.

The report made note of that:

"Historical data shows that presidents tend to travel significantly more in their second terms than in their first four years, perhaps because of fewer political concerns about reelection or a desire to 'legacy build' by tending to international policy priorities. Our analysis shows that President Clinton is the most well traveled chief executive in history. If President Obama keeps up his current pace of travel (just over two days abroad per month) through the remaining 17 months of his term, he will have spent a total of 195 days overseas, less than Clinton and George W. Bush, though previous two-term presidents actually fell short of their projected travel rates."

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com. Obama travels a lot http://washex.am/1IqJdgL in Campaigns on LockerDome