I am tired of visiting popular tourist spots, and I don’t like crowds. So, are there any statistics on what places are LEAST visisted? If I were planning a vacation to Latin America, where would I go (to have the fewest people along with me)? :mad:
Don’t have any stats for you, but bear in mind, when planning your vacation to the Least Visited Spots, that there’s generally an excellent reason why tourists shun certain locales, mainly (A) the presence of Bad Guys such as guerrillas, freedom fighters, bandits, local drug lords, kidnappers of Western tourists for ransom, etc. and (B) the lack of a tourist support infrastructure, such as hotels, airports, car rentals, roads, potable water, effective police forces that aren’t simply random thugs wearing uniforms and demanding baksheesh for not arresting you on a whim.
If all you want is to be alone, my daughters went to the UK in July, visited Doune Castle where they filmed Monty Python’s Holy Grail, and had the place completely to themselves. At the height of tourist season, mind you. In the middle of the day. Nobody there except them.
So the key is to pick your spots. Don’t just look for “Least visited”, because, as I said, there’s always a reason for that.
The Amazon and Patagonia used to be “Least Visited” because they lacked the tourist infrastructure, but now that the infrastructure is being put in place, you can get in there. Ditto for Antarctica and Greenland, but they’re not in Latin America.
I vaguely remember having read that Paraguay was the least visited country in South America.
I would suspect that both North Korea and Vanuatu, for different reasons, probably rank very low re. the number of tourists.
But I would be wary of using such a policy to pick up a vacation spot, lest you end up in the middle of a civil war in the poorest town of most ugly part of the most polluted region of the most repressive country.
Now, thinking of Europe, some rarely visited countries like Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan seem to be very appealing, judging by internet sites, travels reports, etc… I’ve seen on the internet. Same for the “stan” countries in central Asia. So, I’m sure there are still a lot of very interesting but still out of the beaten paths countries.
I never hear of anyone going to Suriname.
I’m going to Reunion Island in a few weeks - somewhat popular with the French, but other than that, not that visited I believe. Vanuatu is a relatively common holiday spot for Kiwis and Aussies, so I would cross that off your list. Other Pac Islands like Easter Island, Truk (called that when I went there, but Chuuk now I believe) and Majuro may be places to consider.
OK. I found a list on a tourism site (I’m not linking to it, since it’s in french).
The least visited country is apparently Tuvalu, with 1 000 tourists/year. Probably not the worst place to be on the planet. The two countries I proposed do better : Vanuatu has 60 000 tourists/year, and North Korea 40 000.
Regarding South-America, you get :
- The Falklands : 3 000 visitors
- The Galapagos : 60 000 visitors
- French Guyana : 80 000 visitors
Least visited in Europe : Moldova, 23 000
Least visited in the middle East : Kuwait, 91 000
Least visited in Africa : Sao Tome, 11 000
Least visited in the Pacific : Tuvalu, 1 000
Least visited in Asia : Tajikistan, 4 000
Least visited in North America : Bermuda, 272 000
Least visited in central America : Belize, 231 000
Least visited in the Caribbean : Montserrat, 10 000
Least visited in South America : Falklands, 3 000
160 000 persons apparently visit it every year (or rather, visited it in 2005), according to the site I found.
Link to site, please. (You should know better than that by now. 
) Are those numbers of French tourists, or all tourists?
Because this here http://www.guidetogalapagos.com/toprates.html says that the Galapagos got 148,664 visitors a year, and that was back in 2006.
Just noticed that some countries don’t appear at all. For instance Afghanistan (even though I know there are tourists there) and Somalia (not sure there are any).
All tourists. I didn’t link because it was in French. Here it is , at the bottom of the page
I notice that on an other page on the site, they mention that Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia are in a “peculiar” situation. For the benefit of people who were recently living on Mars, I suppose.
While Tuvalu itself looks not half bad, the Vaiaku Lagi Hotel doesn’t look to be 5-star.
But, you can walk out of your room onto the Tarmac of the Airport…
People are fleeing Zimbabwe because of hyperinflation, political chaos and violence.
So you wouldn’t meet many tourists there.
More seriously, you could come to England off-season. It would be chilly and wet, but you’d have no trouble finding your own space.
Interesting. But compared to area, you get:
Falkland Islands: 4.05 km² per tourist
Galapagos Islands: 0.13 km² per tourist (by land area)
Galapagos Archipelago: 0.75 km² per tourist (by total area)
French Guyana: 1.04 km² per tourist
Moldova: 1.47 km² per tourist
Kuwait: 0.19 km² per tourist
São Tomé: area unavailable
Tuvalu: 0.03 km² per tourist (island is only 26 km²)
Tajikistan: 35.77 km² per tourist
Bermuda: .00019485 km² per tourist (crowded as hell — island is only 53 km²)
Belize: 0.1 km² per tourist
Montserrat: 0.01 km² per tourist (island is only 102 km²)
If you’re looking for seldom visited places on earth, check out the South Atlantic and Subanartic Islands. http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/
Tristan de Cunha (UK) may have the largest population, but the most famous is Saint Helena which is known because of a famous resident. There seems to be a hotel on St. Helena, but I couldn’t get the site to load. For the latest news from the region go here: http://www.sartma.com/artd_1479_03_2005_7.html
A couple of informative quotes are:
(1) “Nevertheless, Bouvetøya can be considered the most remote island on the planet: now that
sealing and whaling have ceased in the Southern Ocean,it is only rarely visited by man.”
(2) “Since 1938 the Crozets have been a National Park, with protection for the abundant wildlife and unique flora and fauna.”
No statistics, but I went to Albania for a couple days in the spring and it’s pretty obvious they don’t have a lot of tourism. But it’s really beautiful and the people are extremely friendly, so if you’re looking for a nice, cheap vacation in Europe (it shares the Adriatic coast with Croatia, which is a booming holiday spot), I’d recommend it. If you can put up with terrible infrastructure and no one speaking English, anyway.
They love Americans, too. That was an exciting novelty.
Chambers Pillar, Gunbarrel Highway and Rainbow Valley are relatively isolated places.
Lots of countries are very infrequently visited. I have been to Turkmenistan, D.R. Congo and Qatar… not exactly prime tourism destinations… not in Latin America either. The problem with these places are (a) a crazy dictator when I visited (b) a war going on © just a rather dull place.
That said, there are lots of fantastically interesting places that attract few tourists: Iran, Uganda, Laos… it is pretty easy to get off the beaten track and still have a good time in nice surroundings.
When I visited Persepolis in Iran, I was the only one there. Imagine going to the Eiffel Tower and being the only visitor.
Same goes for Monastir, Tunisia in April where they filmed Monty Python and the Life of Brian. Almost nobody around.
Even in a touristic haven like Ireland there are spots you could visit where you’d be the only foreign tourist within miles.