Moderators, which countries have had the least blog entries? Bloggers, have you been to placed that seem untouched? What is the least visited country in the world?
x Maria
Reply to this Right now I dont think there are many/any travellers in Iraq. The risk of getting killed is just way too big. Also the chance of getting a visa is nil for most/everybody. If one wants to get into Iraq one would have to find a way to sneak in illegally and that would also involve the high risk of getting killed.
Haiti would be another scarcely visited country because it is also dangerous right now.
Mel
Reply to this I think that may be a very hard question to answer. Certainly any country involved in war or conflict is likely to be relatively unvisited by travellers, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a popular destination before or after such events. I don't think there is any country that doesn't attract foreign visitors. It may be relatively unknown to European or American travellers but may instead attract visitors from neighbouring countries.
Having said that there are always out of the way places to be found in every country, and there are plenty of places off the tourist route. I've found that by visiting friends in other countries I tend to end up visiting places liked by the locals rather than the traditional tourist spots, and while I don't flatter myself I am the only traveller ever to have been there, I'm often the only one there at the time!
Reply to this I asked a similar question on the Thorn Tree a while back. First of all, seemingly dangerous countries like Somalis, Iraq, Afghanistan, actually receive more tourists than you'd imagine, simply because they have specific regions which are safe. In Iraq, there are lots of travellers going to Kurdistan, in Somlia, the northern region of Somaliland is getting lots of visitors, and the same applies to certain parts of Afghanistan.
My guess would be that the least visited country would be an unstable country off any popular overland route, surrounded by other unstable countries. Therefore my guess is that the Central African Republic is the least visited (by tourists) country in the world. It really is way off the beaten track, I there's only one travelblogger who has been there.
Other candidates would be Chad, Congo Rep, Equatorial Guinea.
Reply to this Of course, if we're talking about specific regions, then my guess would be the following - Arab Iraq, south-east Afghanistan, southern Somalia, parts of the Russian Caucasus, and a load of areas of Central Africa.
Reply to this I thought Kurdistan is now out of bounds too ConMel since the Turkish army went in there to look for terrorists around 6 months ago?? But I dont keep up with world news from all countries so maybe things have become safe again??
Mel
Reply to this I've been following the news on the Thorn Tree, and also on this
this site for a while, and it seems the Turkish incursions haven't really affected the tourists heading to Kurdistan.
Reply to this From the amount of blogs I have read the least visited on travelblog are small island countries... some have one or no entries from some pacific nations - the harder to get to the least visited.... even if courtries are at war, if there is an overland way, people will go (very adventurous but they will still go ) if a country is hard to reach and costs a lot of money to due planes/boats then the adventurous backpacker wouldnt have the money to go.
Reply to this A great topic, one I've thought of myself and a big one to answer but I'll make a few assumptions. a) I assume you mean modern day visiting as people have been travelling as far back as the beginning humanity. b) I assume you mean us well travelled westerners as countries in Central Africa or Central Asia would have had many locals from neighbouring countries moving back and forth...
Taking all that into account I have to agree with travellingmum, some pacific island nations see very few visitors simply because its too hard/expensive to get there and they lack the "big sights" or even any sights at all.
So my guess would be Tuvalu. Enjoyed the last blog from Tuvalu? Yer, thought so, there aren't any. Its so small and insignificant (in travel destination terms) that I have never in my life heard anyone say the name so I don't even know how to prenounce it. Also, its the third smallest country in the world with the second lowest population of any independant nation. It only has one resident embassy (of Chinese Taiwan), the official currency is the Australian dollar and I'm willing to bet if you asked people about the country, you would recieve a blank stare and a "Tuvalu?... huh?". Due to its geographic and diplomatic isolation, its average annual tourist numbers falls well below four figures. Hell, there is even only one hotel in the entire country. Tuvalu... Hmm I might go there one day at least just to find out how to prenounce it.
Reply to this I actually know a lady from tuvalu - so I know a bit about the place 😊 some of them live in Australia as she does, her husband went to tuvalu for a australian version of the peace corps and lived there for two years and stayed after he met her - but when their first child was quite sick they relocated to Australia thanks to husband being australia
and as some of those islands are sinking/disappearing from water rising due to global warming I think there a relocation plans when it does happen - maybe to Australia? I think is one of the places they can go.
Reply to this Bulgaria is low on the list of blogs - seems to be just mine.
Reply to this Actually, no, I thought I had better recheck that and there are others! Ignore me!
Reply to this Interesting... Reason I asked was that I found a region in Romania that had only one blog entry, and I thought that that was impossible.
My question was more relating to places unknown? THe Balkans don't seem to get much press, nor do the islands like pointed out above. Any others?
Has anyone been to places or regions that seem entirely backward, even in travelling and backpacking terms, for reasons other than war?
x
Reply to this I stayed in a village in Kenya one time. I met an English doctor who was volunteering her services in the village for 2 years when I was in Naoiribi. I went to the village with her which was difficult to get to.
People there could not tell which of us was which even though she has blonde hair and I have black. We both looked the same to them because we are white. We were the only white people there. School girls peeped out from behind bushes and giggled when we walked along the street(well it was a dirt track. No paving anywhere)
Things like changing money was impossible and the locals could not take big notes because they had no change to give for such a note. A big note could be one with the value of 5 Euros. There was no running water in the houses. I cant remember if there was electricity or if we used oil lamps.
People asked me questions like if it is true that they tie you to your seat with a rope when you are on a plane so you cant move for the entire journey.
One of the village women there took me to the market to buy a petticoat because my dress was too revealing. It went down to my ankles but if I stood someplace where the light shone on it people could see the outline of my legs.
Mel
Reply to this Interesting discussion. I would go with Travellingmum. It must be one of the island nations in the South Pacific - most people would not even have heard of the likes of Tuvalu, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Nauru (and I only mention UN member countries in order not to go into the likes of Niue, tiny and which is in free association with New Zealand).
Nevertheless, number of blogs might be create quite a distorted view - take my current home country - Papua New Guinea. Quite a number of blogs there - but who wrote them? Apart from the odd tourist, a former missionary and there is a recent surge with people from the MV Doulos, a charity ship, being in the country. The fact that we get many (according to official numbers) close to one hundred thousand visitors a year does not seem to result in many blog entries. Maybe because the visitors might not be your typical bloggers?
Reply to this I actually think ConMel is right with the Central African Republic... Though I don't doubt Tuvalu and the likes get few visitors, I expect they still get more than the Central African Republic... Because they might not get many backpacker tourists, but there are still cruise ships, yachts and what not sailing around the Pacific stopping at many of those islands... Where as the Central African Republic is mostly devoid of both backpackers and the rich or semi rich touristis on cruises, honeymoon or something else... If you look at blogs it would seem Tuvalu or some other island nation is on top of the list, but those on cruise ships or yachts probably don't do much blogging...
Sao Tome & Principe is another nation that isn't mentioned on the blogs and most likely gets few visitors, or Equatorial Guinea for that matter... I went to that country back in '94 and I think me and my brother were the only backpackers around, thought there were a few Spanish contractor... As far as I have heard nothing much has changed except that the government has become even more repressive, so I guess even less people go there...
Reply to this As for little visited places I have been to... The states in northeast India are not visited much for various reasons, probably the main being that you need permits to visit them and they are rather hard to obtain. Don't know exactly what you mean with backward... I have never been to a place I would call backwards, though some of them have a simpler way of life, mostly they seem more happy too... So in India, the places that probably get the least visitors (foreign) that I have been to are Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam... I would think Mizoram gets less than 20 or so foreign tourists a year, but I am not sure...
Outside India: Central Afghanistan is almost devoid of tourists, for good reasons I suppose, but boy are people missing out! Beautiful people, beautiful landscapes, no pollution, bright stars at night, clear and fresh water and so much more; Eastern Iran: the region around Zabol I think gets few visitors, at least that was my impression when I went to visit the place and Hormoz Island also seems to get very few guests; Equatorial Guinea, did the mainland and I got the distinct feeling my brother and I were a rarity in that country; Chad, same thing... Paraguay in S. America also springs to mind, I can't remember seeing any other backpackers when I was there...
Reply to this 
