The 25 least visited countries in the world. Been to any? Want to?

[Sangahyando]

@Sangahyando

A brother of mine and his family, are fans of Caribbean cruises: they’ve been on two or three of such, focusing heavily on the islands of the Leeward / Windward chain. I’d reckon it’s quite possible that on such ventures, they may have put in at Dominica and / or St. Vincent & the Grenadines. I’ll ask brother when I next see him.

@Iggy

Not all of the islands of the Caribbean have the infrastructure needed for even a small cruise ship to visit. Those islands without such infrastructure are like a whole different world.

@Sangahyando

I’m not well-informed about the cruise business: had realised that very tiny islands with minimal facilities would be a problem, but otherwise was unaware of the potential infrastructure issue. All this is interesting – I’ll definitely ask the family member concerned, when I next see him.

I’ve lately talked with my brother about the “Caribbean cruising caper”. He admits to not being the world’s biggest geography nerd; and there are a hell of a lot of small West Indian islands – but he has the strong impression that at least one of the cruises which he’s been on, called at St. Vincent, and he and family duly disembarked and “took in” the place.

In course of conversation, he told me about an episode involving a very badly-behaved family on the cruise – who instigated a fight, actual physical violence, over doings in the ship’s laundry; and their out-of-control kids wrought destruction on the ship’s Christmas decorations: the captain put them and their luggage ashore at St. Vincent – and how to get out of that predicament, was their problem. Hearing this, made me even less desirous than before, of going on a cruise: misbehave to a sufficient degree, and even today, you can end up like Ben Gunn in Treasure Island – well, sort-of.

[Desert_Nomad]

@notquitekarpov

It is not a recognized independent country by any UN member country.

Russia has a habit of encouraging such enclaves within it’s previous united Soviet republics for obvious reasons. There are several others.

No, it isn’t but it has borders (when there are immigration officers), a flag, a currency. It may not be recognized, but it certainly exists as a country. There is no way to pre tent it isn’t real and visit the place.

@jtur88

I’ve been to six of them: Libya. Comoros, Liberia, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Liechtenstein.
A few I’ve been to might make the list, but they are not universally recognized, like Transdniestria and Turkish Northern Cyprus. And some non-sovereign territories, like St. Pierre et Miquelon.

I’ve been trying to get to Mauritania for a while. Did you spend much time there?

[Ravenman]

I was watching the local news a few days ago, and there’s a segment where a servicemember can tape a short message to his family for the holidays. This one started off, “My name is Specialist John Jones, and I’m in CJTF-HOA here in beautiful Djibouti…”

I laughed.

[suranyi]

I’ve been to Liechtenstein. Even stopped there to have lunch. I’m surprised it has so few visitors; it’s not that hard to get to.

[RealityChuck]

I haven’t been to any. My daughter was in Namibia, which I’m surprised isn’t on the list, unless they’re counting South Africans who travel through it to get to Zambia.

[jz78817]

no, and no.

[Precambrianmollusc]

Turkmenistan in 04-05 and Libya 03-04
Surprised Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are not on the list.
I wonder if Lichtenstein is on the list because they just don’t gather data on people visiting .

[Clothahump]

@dalej42

Here’s a list of the 25 least visited countries in the world, not a slideshow.

http://www.garfors.com/2015/07/the-25-least-visited-countries-in-whole.html

Have you been to any of these countries? Would you want to?

#4. The Marshall Islands.

I lived on Kwajalein 1986-88. It was a blast. The temps were upper 70s to upper 80s year round, and it’s the best scuba diving in the world.

[Sangahyando]

@RealityChuck

I haven’t been to any. My daughter was in Namibia, which I’m surprised isn’t on the list, unless they’re counting South Africans who travel through it to get to Zambia.

I gather that Namibia has fantastic game reserves – quite a big tourist draw. My other brother (not the cruise fan) has done that there: found it a wonderful experience.

[jjimm]

I’ve been to Dominica several times, because my grandmother was from there. It’s where I had my honeymoon. It’s a stunningly beautiful place, but very poor.

I also went to St Vincent when I was a child because my great aunt moved there from Dominica.

[yo_han_go]

It occurred to me, that this numbers might only include registered tourists. And I am quite sure that not all countries count tourists the same way. So there can be some anomalies.