Photos of the World's Least-Visited Places

Travel has ground to a virtual halt due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic but a lack of visitors is nothing new to these remote places. Here are some of the least-visited countries and territories around the world.

This tiny South Pacific island chain is among the smallest and most remote nations anywhere on the globe and the lack of tourists-Tuvalu hosted approximately 2,000 international visitors in 2017-means it's also among the most pristine places on the planet.

The Kiribati Islands in the central Pacific Ocean are incredibly isolated, attracting only a few thousand visitors each year. Nonetheless, this overlooked paradise offers travelers rich cultural experiences as well as world-class fishing.

Elsewhere in the central Pacific, the Marshall Islands are perhaps best known as being the site of dozens of U.S. nuclear tests in the mid-20th century. The islands' Bikini Atoll is also where the iconic swimwear got its name from.

Montserrat, also referred to as The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, is a British Overseas Territory most famous for a series of volcanic eruptions in the late 1990s that buried the island's capital city of Plymouth, a modern-day Pompeii.

The South Pacific island nation of Niue is renowned for its coral reefs and migrating whales. With a land area of only 100 square miles and a population of just over 1,600, Niue is easily one of the world's smallest countries.

If you haven't noticed by now, the Pacific Ocean is remarkably vast. American Samoa's roughly 20,000 international tourist arrivals in 2017 were 10 times that of Tuvalu but it still ranks the U.S. territory toward the top in terms of the world's least-visited places.

Located northeast of Australia, the Solomon Islands gained its independence from the U.K. in 1978. Decades later, this expansive archipelago is renowned for its World War II-era sites and landmarks, including abandoned fox holes and sunken submarines.

Biodiverse Sao Tome and Principe off of the coast of Africa is a bucket list place for nature lovers around the world as its home to ever-expanding lush jungle and a vast array of unique plant and animal species.

Often overshadowed by the Seychelles and Mauritius, Comoros is a tiny island nation situated between East Africa and Madagascar famous for aromatic plants that have earned it the nickname the Perfume Isles.

Despite its otherwordly landscape, Djibouti is among the world's least-visited countries. Lake Assal, which is the world's largest salt reserve, is just one of many sites that set this place apart.

Tonga hosted just over 60,000 international visitors in 2017, based on UNWTO figures. The Polynesian kingdom is well-known for its picturesque beaches and reefs as well as its hospitable people.