Least visited countries in the world

[gooni]

For some travelers, getting off the beaten path is a point of pride, a way to see the parts of the world that don’t make it into glossy guidebooks.

 

But how many of those same adventurous travelers would be willing to visit, say, Somalia?

 

About 500, it turns out. At least, that’s how many tourists found their way to the war-torn east African nation last year

 

http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/least-visited-countries-in-the-world-201146242.html

[oba hiloowlow]

BS aint true lets define tourists first, isn't all the somalis from the diaspora visiting somalia tourists?

[Safferz]

Reminds me of this article a few years back:

Somalia Gets a Tourist, Mogadishu Officials Are Baffled

 

Read more:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/12/13/somalia-gets-a-tourist-mogadishu-officials-are-baffled/#ixzz2P3fiknX5

 

It’s no wonder Somali immigration officials in Mogadishu thought a 41-year-old man who described himself as a tourist was insane; they hadn’t seen a tourist in the Somali capital since, well, ever.

 

Canadian citizen Mike Spencer Bown is a seasoned traveler having visited more than 150 countries. But when he arrived in Mogadishu as a tourist, he was met with disbelief.

 

“We have never seen people like this man,” Omar Mohamed, one of the officials, told the AFP. “He said he was a tourist, we couldn’t believe him. But later on we found he was serious. That makes him the first person to come to Mogadishu only for tourism.”

 

Somalia has been one of the world’s most dangerous regions since 1991 when political strife erupted and the country has been plagued by civil conflict since. Many government tourism departments, including those of the U.S. and Canada, heavily discourage travel to Somalia. According to the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs, “kidnapping, murder, illegal roadblocks, banditry, and other violent incidents and threats to U.S. citizens and other foreigners can occur in many regions.”

 

All of that may seem pretty daunting to any traveler but Bown was intent on visiting Somalia’s beaches. “I knew that Somalia plunged into civil strife nearly the day I started travelling but it was still on my list of places on the globe I should tour,” he said.

 

Bown managed to spend time in the dangerous capital (only within the gates of his heavily guarded hotel), though he said that it took a bit of finagling to actually get past the dubious officials at the airport.

 

“They tried four times to put me back on the plane to get rid of me but I shouted and played tricks until the plane left without me,” he said.

 

And you thought TSA pat downs were an ordeal.

[Nin-Yaaban]

What's not being reported is, the thousands and thousands of the Qurbo Joog who go back annually. Since there are no direct flights to Somalia and most have to fly in to Kenya, Dubai, or Ethiopia, those places would be shown for the travel destination and not Somalia.

[Chimera]

Safferz;932217 wrote:

Reminds me of this article a few years back:

Somalia Gets a Tourist, Mogadishu Officials Are Baffled

 

Read more:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/12/13/somalia-gets-a-tourist-mogadishu-officials-are-baffled/#ixzz2P3fiknX5

 

It’s no wonder Somali immigration officials in Mogadishu thought a 41-year-old man who described himself as a tourist was insane; they hadn’t seen a tourist in the Somali capital since, well, ever.

 

Canadian citizen Mike Spencer Bown is a seasoned traveler having visited more than 150 countries. But when he arrived in Mogadishu as a tourist, he was met with disbelief.

 

“We have never seen people like this man,” Omar Mohamed, one of the officials, told the AFP. “He said he was a tourist, we couldn’t believe him. But later on we found he was serious. That makes him the first person to come to Mogadishu only for tourism.”

 

Somalia has been one of the world’s most dangerous regions since 1991 when political strife erupted and the country has been plagued by civil conflict since. Many government tourism departments, including those of the U.S. and Canada, heavily discourage travel to Somalia. According to the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs, “kidnapping, murder, illegal roadblocks, banditry, and other violent incidents and threats to U.S. citizens and other foreigners can occur in many regions.”

 

All of that may seem pretty daunting to any traveler but Bown was intent on visiting Somalia’s beaches. “I knew that Somalia plunged into civil strife nearly the day I started travelling but it was still on my list of places on the globe I should tour,” he said.

 

Bown managed to spend time in the dangerous capital (only within the gates of his heavily guarded hotel), though he said that it took a bit of finagling to actually get past the dubious officials at the airport.

 

“They tried four times to put me back on the plane to get rid of me but I shouted and played tricks until the plane left without me,” he said.

 

And you thought TSA pat downs were an ordeal.

I think that was a scout taking pictures for a feasibility-study with regards to the arrival of Erdogan a year later. He snapped all the important points in Mogadishu, and potential red-flags, basically the study was a success.

 

As for the OP's sensationalist drivel, I want to see that Ryan dude attempt to utter the same words in less than 5 years time.

[Safferz]

Chimera;932293 wrote:

I think that was a scout taking pictures for a feasibility-study with regards to the arrival of Erdogan a year later. He snapped all the important points in Mogadishu, and potential red-flags, basically the study was a success.

Do you have a source for that or are you speculating? It was a Canadian tourist.

[Chimera]

^