The United Nations Organization (UNWTO - UN World Tourism Organization) has been keeping statistics on the number of tourists in countries around the world for many years. The most visited country in the last 10 years is France. The least is the country in which I am writing this unique post.
According to these statistics, in 1990 there were 435 million tourists a year in the world, now the number of tourists, despite terrorism, plane crashes, diseases... has risen to 1,235 million tourists a year. One and a quarter billion people travel around the world every year. That's decent. Over the past year, tourism has grown the most in Africa. BUBO has its fingers crossed for Africa, on that continent we can fight for a "place on the box" s world tour. Few people know Africa better than we do. African countries occupy the first places in the negative tables: The poorest country in the world, the smallest GDP/capita, the fewest toilets per capita, the most AIDS/Ebolas, etc. In this negative assessment - the least visited countries in the world, however, Africa does not rank first.
The most visited countries today are:
1. France 82.6 million tourists per year
2. USA 75.6 million
3. Spain 75.5 million
4. China 59.3 million
5. Italy 52.4 million
6. Great Britain 35.8 million
7. Germany 35.6 million
8. Mexico 35.1 million
9. Thailand 32.6 million
10. Turkey 29.7 million
Turkey held the 6th place for a long time, but now it has fallen. Malaysia also dropped a few places from 9th place. After a series of terrorist attacks, a slump is also expected in tourism in France. Thailand has improved significantly.
Least visited countries in the world:
10. Gabon (16,000 tourists/year)
9. (12,500 tourists/year)
8. Afghanistan (12,000 tourists/year)
7. Saint Thomas and Princes Island (8000 tourists/year)
6. Marshall Islands (7000 tourists/year)
5. Kiribati (4000 tourists/year)
4. Tuvalu (2000 tourists/year)
3. Somalia (1600 tourists/year)
2. Equatorial Guinea (430 tourists/year)
1. Nauru (200 tourists/year)
Compiling a table of the most visited countries in the world is quite easy. With the least frequented, it is a tougher nut to crack and I have to make compromises. In eleventh place the least countries in the world are the Solomon Islands. I ask Chris Nemai, from the country's tourist board, how many tourists they get each year. He answers that up to 20,000, but half of them are businessmen, so there are 10,000 real tourists like us. I wrote many of the numbers I have here after talking to the people responsible for tourism. There is also a number on Nauru that I wrote correctly. The average number of tourists for the last 10 years is around 170/year on Nauru. 200 people is the current status. Comoros is visited annually by 26,000 tourists. East Timor, where I was a month ago, has 72,000 tourists a year, which is twice as many as 5 years ago. Moldova rose to 121,000 this year. Democratic Republic of Congo 135,000. Bhutan 210,000 tourists. Brunei 219,000 tourists per year.
Guinea Bisaw dictated 44,000 tourists, but everyone knows that in a country with constant upheavals, this is a fictional number. Now it has spread, they are trying to cover up the scandal. The official number they will agree on will probably be 18,000 tourists. But in reality, there are only a fraction of real tourists. For many years, Guinea Bisaw dictated 7,500 tourists a year. And now it couldn't jump up like that! After all, thousands of smugglers and drug lords cannot be counted as tourists.
The least visited countries in the world by tourists are those in a state of war, in a civil war. So my table is also not completely correct. I have put the states that can be visited today. I used to visit Syria and Yemen repeatedly, but now the tourist does not smell these countries. It is the same with Libya, Iraq, and the Central African Republic. In my opinion, all these 5 countries are far below Afghanistan in the number of tourists today. Central African Republic and South Sudan should be instead of Gabon. Well, it is not possible to travel here for most tourists. There is a civil war. I compiled the table as an average over the last 10 years. After all, it is not possible that someone jumps from 160 to 200 tourists a year, which he dictates for 7 years in a row, to 2000 in the course of a year. I would consider that a statistical error. And even if this country did not deliver the numbers for the last year, I assume that they have not changed rapidly. There are, after all, certain political interests in the table of the United Nations.
Many countries have not provided statistics for the last year. However, this does not mean that I will exclude them from my table. They are certainly (the least visited countries in my table) less visited than San Marino. The UN table does not reflect this, and in some foreign media this table, which is not a dogma, but a tool, has created absolute delusions. When someone does not provide numbers, they do not believe that they exist, and Syria, Yemen, Equatorial Guinea did not provide numbers. Equatorial Guinea is not interested in being in these statistics. Another problem is that many countries dictate false numbers. They want to look more beautiful (see Gabon's numbers, which are made up and there are a minimum of real tourists. This year I all over the country and we didn't meet a single one - in the entire national park 4 times larger than the High Tatras. Luango national park is the most famous one here, as the High Tatras.) In Gabon, I also spoke with the President of Tourism and why I ranked Gabon in 10th place, you can also learn from the observation directly from our trip HERE.
Well, the first two places of the least visited countries are correct. These are not dangerous countries. But as a tourist, you will not get a visa - you have been welcome in these countries for the last 10 years. In both Nauru and Equatorial Guinea, you will meet many Caucasians at the airport. Well, it's not about tourists. Our Menem hotel on Nauru has 200 rooms I think, it's a lot of buildings, it's a government hotel. We wanted to change one room, well that, we offered to pay anything - and the night here costs 190 Australian dollars - but they couldn't find a room. The hotel is absolutely full. Ten of us are the only tourists!!! We got our visas and they assigned us rooms exactly. We are under more scrutiny here than we were in North Korea.
For comparison. Slovakia has over 6 million tourists a year. The Czech Republic dictates 12 million. Austria 28 million.
Article source: https://bubo.sk/blog/10-najmenej-navstevovanych-krajin-sveta
Article author: Ľuboš Fellner