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16 LeastVisitedCountries

The 16 countries on Earth that almost no one visits. Ranked by annual international arrivals, from 315,000 a year all the way down to a hundred and sixty.

16 countries≈ 1.05M arrivals combinedUNWTO data
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By TripMemo · Updated 11 May 2026 · 11 min read · UNWTO data

the world's emptiest passport stamps

If a country gets 4,000 visitors a year, you'd be 0.025% of its annual tourists.

Most listicles rank countries by what you should see. This one ranks them by how few people have. Some are tiny (San Marino, a medieval republic on a single mountain). Some are remote (Tuvalu, a thread of atolls in the middle of the Pacific). Some are by design (Bhutan caps tourism with a daily fee).

All of them are on Earth right now, and almost no one is going. These are the 16 countries that get fewer international tourists than your nearest theme park does on a Tuesday. Numbers are from the UNWTO and national tourism boards, latest pre-pandemic year where reliable.

See the 16→How we counted
Earth's population≈ 8.1B
People in these 16 countries≈ 5.6M
Combined annual visitors≈ 1.05M
Visitors to the Eiffel Tower (yr)≈ 7M
for scale →

our method

How we ranked these 16

Visitor data alone doesn't tell the whole story. We weighed arrivals against accessibility, policy and reason to visit, then cross-referenced with national tourism boards for the most recent year on record.

  • 01

    How we counted

    International tourist arrivals from UNWTO and national tourism boards, latest reliable pre-pandemic year where post-2020 data was thin. Day-trippers excluded where overnight stays were reported separately.

  • 02

    Why so few

    Three reasons keep visitor counts low: geography (atolls thousands of kilometres from anywhere), policy (visa walls, daily fees), and reputation (instability long after it ended).

  • 03

    Should you go

    Yes, if you go responsibly. Tourism keeps these economies alive, but only if it's slow, respectful, and routed through local operators rather than mass-market intermediaries.

  • 04

    How to get in

    Each card lists actual flight routes and visa requirements. Several are doable as a one-week detour on a longer trip; a few need their own dedicated 7 to 10 days.

16

Himalayas, South Asia

Bhutan

Tiger's Nest, Punakha Dzong, and a $100/day sustainable-development fee.

Bhutan is the only country in the world that measures Gross National Happiness as an official metric, and the only one that deliberately caps tourism through a daily Sustainable Development Fee. The result: empty trails to cliff-side monasteries, dzongs you'll have to yourself, and a Himalayan kingdom that still feels like the 14th century with Wi-Fi.

Getting inDruk Air or Bhutan Airlines from Delhi, Bangkok or Singapore. SDF: roughly $100 per person per day.
Why so fewBy design. Bhutan limits tourism to keep the country, the country.

“The only country that priced out the postcard tour.”

Traditional Bhutanese dzong courtyard with mountains behind
Annual visitors
315,000visitors / year · 2019 (Tourism Council of Bhutan)
Gross National Happiness, by policyBT
15

Central Europe / Alps

Liechtenstein

Vaduz Castle, a ski lift, and the Rhine.

The world's sixth-smallest country, sitting between Switzerland and Austria on the upper Rhine. The royal family still lives in the cliffside castle above Vaduz. You can walk across the country in a long afternoon, ski it in a morning, and post your passport stamp from the tourist office for 3 francs.

Getting inTrain to Sargans (Switzerland) or Buchs, then 15 minutes by bus.
Why so fewTiny, no airport, often visited as a day trip from Zürich.

“A whole principality, one long afternoon.”

Vaduz Castle on a green hillside in Liechtenstein
Annual visitors
85,000visitors / year · 2019 (Liechtenstein Tourism)
Alpine principality, 38,000 peopleLI
14

Southern Europe

San Marino

A medieval crown of three towers on Monte Titano.

Founded, by tradition, in 301 AD, San Marino is the world's oldest sovereign republic. The whole country sits on Monte Titano, ringed by walls and crowned by three medieval towers with views all the way to the Adriatic. Most visitors come on day trips from Rimini; almost nobody stays the night, which means the old town empties out at 6pm like a film set.

Getting inTrain and bus from Rimini, Italy (no airport, no border control).
Why so fewEasy day trip, so almost no overnight stays count toward the visitor total.

“A medieval republic that empties out at six.”

Castle on the hillside in San Marino
Annual visitors
The oldest republic in the worldSM
13

Southeast Asia

Timor-Leste

Atauro Island, Cristo Rei, a coral triangle that almost no one dives.

Independent since 2002, Timor-Leste sits in the Coral Triangle (the world's most biodiverse marine ecosystem) and barely anyone is diving it. Atauro Island, an hour by ferry from Dili, has been measured as the single most fish-species-rich square of ocean ever surveyed. The capital is dramatic, the coffee is excellent, the country is at the very beginning of its tourism story.

Getting inAir Timor and Citilink from Bali; Qantas from Darwin.
Why so fewNew on the map, often confused with Indonesian Timor, almost zero marketing budget.

“The fishiest reef on Earth, with no one diving it.”

Coastal road beside the deep blue sea in Dili, Timor-Leste
Annual visitors
75,000visitors / year · 2019 (UNWTO)
Asia's youngest nationTL
12

West Africa

Sierra Leone

Tacugama, Banana Islands, the Peninsula beaches.

Sierra Leone has one of the most underrated beach coastlines in Africa, a thriving chimpanzee sanctuary in the rainforest above Freetown, and a music and street-food culture that punches far above its visitor numbers. The country has rebuilt itself since the 90s and 2014, and the welcome on arrival is exactly the kind of thing word of mouth will eventually pick up on.

Getting inBrussels Airlines from Brussels; Royal Air Maroc via Casablanca.
Why so fewOld reputations linger longer than the realities.

“The Caribbean, transplanted to West Africa.”

Tree-lined street in Freetown, Sierra Leone
Annual visitors
70,000visitors / year · 2019 (UNWTO)
Chimpanzees and white sandSL
11

West Africa

Guinea-Bissau

88 islands, salt-water hippos, a biosphere reserve.

A former Portuguese colony on the West African coast, including the Bijagós: 88 islands and islets, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, and home to a rare population of salt-water hippos and the world's largest nesting site of green sea turtles. There is almost no tourism infrastructure, which is exactly the point for the people who do come.

Getting inTAP Portugal via Lisbon; ECA via Dakar. Boat to the Bijagós from Bissau.
Why so fewDecades of political instability and very little marketing.

“Salt-water hippos and almost nobody else.”

Fresh mangoes in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau
Annual visitors
52,000visitors / year · 2019 (UNWTO)
The Bijagós ArchipelagoGW
10

Gulf of Guinea, Africa

Equatorial Guinea

Bioko's volcanic peak and the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa.

Africa's only Spanish-speaking country, sitting in the Gulf of Guinea with one of the highest GDPs per capita on the continent (most of it offshore oil) and one of the lowest visitor counts. Bioko Island is volcanic rainforest with rare primates and one of the world's most important sea-turtle nesting beaches.

Getting inLufthansa from Frankfurt; Iberia from Madrid. Visas are notoriously slow.
Why so fewOpaque visa regime, limited tourism marketing, almost no English used.

“Africa's only Spanish-speaking secret.”

Portrait scene in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
Annual visitors
40,000visitors / year · 2019 (estimated; data is sparse)
Oil-rich, opaque, off-the-recordGQ
09

Indian Ocean, Africa

Comoros

Ylang-ylang fields, an active volcano, the Mozambique Channel.

Three volcanic islands between Mozambique and Madagascar, growing roughly two-thirds of the world's ylang-ylang for the global perfume industry. Mount Karthala on Grande Comore is one of the largest active volcanoes on the planet. Beaches are empty, dive sites are coelacanth-territory, and the country gets fewer visitors than a mid-sized Greek island in a slow week.

Getting inKenya Airways via Nairobi; Ethiopian via Addis. Then a Twin Otter between islands.
Why so fewPolitically complicated past, no resort scene, off most maps.

“Two thirds of the world's perfume, almost nobody to smell it.”

Aerial view of Maloudja beach on Grande Comore, Comoros
Annual visitors
36,000visitors / year · 2019 (UNWTO)
The Perfume IslandsKM
08

Gulf of Guinea, Africa

São Tomé and Príncipe

Equator, jungle, cocoa, almost no one else.

Two volcanic islands off the coast of Gabon, an old Portuguese cocoa colony now growing some of the world's most expensive single-origin chocolate. Príncipe is biosphere-reserve protected and one of the lowest-light-pollution islands on Earth. You can be the only guest at your hotel on a Friday night.

Getting inTAP Portugal from Lisbon; STP Airways from Libreville or Accra.
Why so fewTiny, far, Portuguese-speaking, no household-name attractions.

“An equator-line beach with nobody on it.”

Breakfast at Praia Inhame Eco Lodge in Sao Tome and Principe
Annual visitors
30,000visitors / year · 2019 (UNWTO)
Volcanic cocoa islandsST
07

Melanesia, Pacific

Solomon Islands

Guadalcanal, Iron Bottom Sound, 992 islands.

An archipelago of nearly a thousand islands east of Papua New Guinea, with one of the densest concentrations of WWII wrecks anywhere on Earth. Iron Bottom Sound is named for the dozens of US and Japanese ships sunk there in 1942 and 43. Above water: rainforest, beaches, and almost no tourists.

Getting inSolomon Airlines from Brisbane or Nadi to Honiara.
Why so fewPast instability and limited flights kept it off most travel routes.

“A thousand islands, 14 wrecks per square mile.”

Aerial view of a reef-fringed island in the Solomon Islands
Annual visitors
28,900visitors / year · 2019 (UNWTO)
Wreck-diving the Pacific theatreSB
06

Central Asia

Turkmenistan

Ashgabat in white marble, the Karakum in flames.

One of the world's most closed countries, ruled by a personality cult that built a capital out of white marble and gold-leaf statues. Out in the Karakum Desert, the Darvaza gas crater (the Door to Hell) has been on fire since 1971. To get in you need a tour-guide visa, but those who manage it walk into a country that genuinely doesn't exist anywhere else.

Getting inPre-arranged tour-guide visa, fly into Ashgabat via Istanbul or Dubai.
Why so fewStrict visa policy, mandatory tour guide, very little marketing.

“A capital of marble, a desert on fire.”

Darvaza gas crater burning in the Karakum Desert, Turkmenistan
Annual visitors
14,000visitors / year · 2019 (UNWTO; pre-pandemic)
The Door to Hell and the marble cityTM
05

Polynesia, Pacific

Niue

Self-governing, free-associated, and almost nation-wide Wi-Fi.

Niue is one of the world's largest raised coral atolls, a single 260 sq km rock in free association with New Zealand. The water around it is so clear you can see spinner dolphins and humpback whales from the cliffs. There are no traffic lights, one set of fuel pumps, and arguably the best snorkelling per capita on Earth.

Getting inAir New Zealand once a week from Auckland.
Why so fewOne flight a week, no high-rises, no chain hotels.

“One rock, 1,700 people, all the whales.”

Rocky island coastline and blue sea for Niue's raised coral landscape
Annual visitors
10,200visitors / year · 2019 (Niue Tourism)
A single rock in the South PacificNU
04

Micronesia, Pacific

Kiribati

The only country to straddle all four hemispheres.

Pronounced Kiri-bass. 33 atolls and reef islands strung along the equator, the only country with land in every hemisphere, and one of the first places on Earth to see the sun each morning. The wreck-strewn lagoons of Tarawa are still the territory of WWII history nerds and the very small Pacific diving scene.

Getting inFiji Airways and Nauru Airlines to Tarawa; charters to outer islands.
Why so fewSpread over 3.5 million sq km of ocean. Hard to reach, harder to circumnavigate.

“The first sunrise of every day on Earth.”

Aerial view of ocean and coastline in Kiribati
Annual visitors
6,200visitors / year · 2019 (UNWTO)
33 atolls, four time zonesKI
03

Micronesia, Pacific

Marshall Islands

Bikini Atoll, Operation Crossroads, and 750 reefs.

29 atolls stretched across two million square kilometres of ocean, including Bikini and Enewetak, where the US tested 67 nuclear devices in the 1940s and 50s. Today it's a Pacific micronation in a Compact of Free Association with the US, with some of the most extraordinary wreck-diving and dive-bombing the planet has on offer.

Getting inUnited Airlines' island-hopper from Honolulu via Majuro.
Why so fewRemote, expensive flights, very little tourism infrastructure.

“Two million square kilometres of ocean, one airline.”

Boat and shoreline scene in Majuro, Marshall Islands
Annual visitors
6,100visitors / year · 2019 (UNWTO)
29 atolls, one historyMH
02

Polynesia, Pacific

Tuvalu

Nine atolls, a metre above sea level, three flights a week.

Tuvalu is a thread of nine low-lying atolls in the central Pacific, and one of the countries most at risk from sea-level rise. The runway at Funafuti doubles as the island's village green. The total population is 11,000; the entire country is smaller than London's Hyde Park.

Getting inFiji Airways twice-weekly from Suva to Funafuti.
Why so fewNo resorts, no diving operators, very few flights.

“A whole nation a metre above the sea.”

Thatched huts and a walkway in Funafuti, Tuvalu
Annual visitors
3,700visitors / year · 2019 (UNWTO; pre-pandemic peak)
The country that is sinkingTV
01

Micronesia, Pacific

Nauru

21 square kilometres, one runway, almost nobody.

Nauru is the third-smallest country on Earth and arguably the least-visited. The whole island is 21 sq km, the interior is a moonscape of mined-out phosphate, and the airport is the country's de facto front door. Most arrivals are aid workers, mine consultants and the occasional country collector. You will, statistically, be one of them.

Getting inNauru Airlines from Brisbane via Honiara or Tarawa.
Why so fewNo tourism industry, no international hotels chain, no obvious reason to come.

“An entire republic in one Uber ride.”

Rocky blue coastline on Nauru's Island Ring Road
Annual visitors
160visitors / year · 2019 (UNWTO; latest reported)
The world's smallest republicNR

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questions, answered

Least visited FAQ

  • What is the least visited country in the world?

    Nauru is widely cited as the least visited country in the world, with reported international tourist arrivals of around 160 per year. Tuvalu (≈3,700/yr), the Marshall Islands (≈6,100/yr) and Kiribati (≈6,200/yr) are next, all small Pacific island nations. The figures come from the UNWTO and national tourism boards, latest reliable pre-pandemic year on record.

  • Why do so few people visit these countries?

    Three reasons: geography, policy, and reputation. Geography keeps tiny Pacific atolls like Tuvalu and Nauru almost untouched (very few flights, very far from anywhere). Policy keeps Bhutan and Turkmenistan exclusive (a daily fee or a mandatory tour-guide visa). And reputation keeps places like Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau quieter than they need to be, long after the headlines that caused it.

  • Is it safe to visit the least visited countries?

    Many of them, yes. San Marino, Liechtenstein, Niue, Nauru and Tuvalu are extraordinarily safe (essentially zero violent crime). Bhutan and Timor-Leste are very safe and tourist-friendly. Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and the Comoros are safer than their old reputations suggest. Equatorial Guinea and Turkmenistan are politically restrictive and require careful planning. Always check your government's latest travel advice.

  • How many countries are there in the world?

    There are 193 UN member states, plus 2 observer states (the Vatican and Palestine), and several widely-recognised but not UN-listed countries (Taiwan, Kosovo). Most country-counters use 195 as the working number. The least-visited list draws from the full UNWTO-reporting set.

  • Which country has the most tourists per capita?

    Andorra, San Marino and the Vatican lead the per-capita charts (millions of visitors against tiny populations). On the other end of the spectrum, Tuvalu has roughly one visitor for every three residents per year. Per-capita ratios are a useful counter-metric to raw arrivals.

  • Is Bhutan really one of the least visited countries?

    Yes, by design. Bhutan caps tourism through a Sustainable Development Fee of roughly $100 per person per day. The result is around 315,000 annual visitors against a population of nearly 800,000, which keeps it on this list. The country actively prioritises Gross National Happiness over arrival counts.

  • Can you visit Turkmenistan independently?

    Mostly no. Turkmenistan requires a tourist visa that almost always requires a pre-arranged guide and itinerary. Transit visas exist (3 to 5 days, no guide) but are issued sparingly. Most visitors enter via a specialist tour to the Darvaza gas crater (the ‘Door to Hell’) and Ashgabat.

  • What are the least visited countries in Africa?

    São Tomé and Príncipe, the Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone are the least-visited countries in Africa with reliable visitor data. All five get fewer than 80,000 international tourists a year. They reward travellers who do go with empty beaches, biosphere reserves and almost no fellow tourists.

  • What are the least visited countries in Europe?

    San Marino (≈78,000 overnight visitors), Liechtenstein (≈85,000), Andorra and Monaco are Europe's smallest, and easiest to add to a longer trip in Italy, Switzerland or France. Most visitors are day-trippers, so the overnight count understates the actual footfall.

  • How do you visit a country like Nauru or Tuvalu?

    Both are reached on a single airline. Nauru is served by Nauru Airlines from Brisbane via Honiara or Tarawa. Tuvalu is served by Fiji Airways twice a week from Suva to Funafuti. Flights are sparse, so most trips are built around the schedule rather than the other way around. Plan 5 to 7 days minimum for either.

  • Are these visitor numbers accurate?

    They're the best available. The UNWTO is the global standard, supplemented by national tourism boards where UNWTO data is missing. Pacific micronations often report inconsistently, so the numbers should be read as the right order of magnitude rather than precise counts. We chose the latest reliable pre-pandemic year where post-2020 data was thin or unreported.

  • What is the least visited country in South America?

    Suriname is South America's least-visited country with roughly 250,000 international arrivals a year, well below neighbouring Guyana, Bolivia and Paraguay. Its Dutch-speaking capital Paramaribo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the interior is largely roadless Amazon. It didn't make our 16 because the absolute count is higher than the cut-off.

  • Which Asian country has the fewest tourists?

    Bhutan caps its visitor count by policy and remains Asia's least-visited UN member state by design, with ~315,000 a year. Timor-Leste is next with ~75,000. North Korea (DPRK) receives only a few thousand Western visitors a year but tour-restricted entries make the figure unreliable.

  • What about the Vatican, Andorra, Monaco — aren't they least-visited too?

    Counterintuitive: those three see millions of visitors a year despite being tiny. The Vatican alone draws 6 to 7 million annually thanks to St Peter's and the museums. Per-capita arrivals there are extreme, but absolute arrival counts are far higher than every country on this list. We rank by absolute international tourist arrivals.

  • Why isn't North Korea (DPRK) on the list?

    Western tourist arrivals to North Korea are reportedly only in the low thousands, but the country does not publish UNWTO-compatible international tourism data, and Chinese border-tour numbers are not consistently counted as international arrivals. We excluded it because the figure can't be cross-checked, not because the trip is common.

  • Have you been to all 16 countries?

    No. TripMemo is a publication, not a personal travelogue. The rankings draw on UNWTO arrivals data and corroborating reports from each country's tourism authority. Editorial copy on each card is researched from primary sources — diving operators, national parks, airline schedules — rather than first-person visits.

  • Are these the best countries to visit if you want to avoid tourists?

    Mostly yes — but pick on intent. For empty beaches: Sierra Leone, Comoros, São Tomé. For policy-curated solitude: Bhutan. For Pacific atoll seclusion: Niue, Tuvalu, Kiribati. For one of Europe's emptiest old towns at night: San Marino. Avoiding tourists is the easiest part; getting there is the hard part, and each card lists actual flight routes.

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The full table

Every entry, ranked by latest reliable annual international tourist arrivals. Click any row to jump back to that country's deep-dive above.

The 16 least visited countries in the world, ranked by annual international tourist arrivals (UNWTO data, latest reliable pre-pandemic year unless otherwise noted).
RankCountryVisitors / year
01Nauru160
02Tuvalu3,700
03Marshall Islands6,100
04Kiribati6,200
05Niue10,200
06Turkmenistan14,000
07Solomon Islands28,900
08São Tomé and Príncipe30,000
09Comoros36,000
10Equatorial Guinea40,000
11Guinea-Bissau52,000
12Sierra Leone70,000
13Timor-Leste75,000
14San Marino78,000
15Liechtenstein85,000
16Bhutan315,000
Source: UNWTO Tourism Statistics + national tourism boards. Full citations ↓

where the numbers come from

Data sources

Visitor counts are the latest reliable pre-pandemic figures reported by the UNWTO and corroborated against the relevant national tourism authority. Where 2020 to 2023 data was missing or distorted by closures, we used the most recent comparable year (typically 2019). Numbers are best read as the right order of magnitude rather than precise counts.

Primary data

National tourism authorities

If you spot an updated figure or believe a number is materially wrong, email hello@tripmemo.app with the source and we'll revise. We refresh this page whenever new UNWTO data is released.