The number of extreme tourists continues to grow

In pursuit of thrills, an increasing number of tourists are beginning to become interested in potentially dangerous destinations - from North Korea to Iraq. Thus, the British company Lupine Travel, specializing in extreme excursions, in 2019 noted a 30% increase in bookings.

The most popular with brave travelers now are countries destroyed by the war, such as Syria and Afghanistan, and tours to North Korea, Chechnya and Sudan are also in high demand.

According to James Finnerty, co-owner of Lupine Travel, there are several categories of travelers who are attracted to such trips. First of all, these are popular bloggers on social networks who seek to visit all countries of the world without exception for the maximum promotion of their pages. 

“We have 15 to 20 clients who have traveled to all countries of the world, and there are many more who have visited more than a hundred countries,” he says.  ‘‘Many of them are influential people, they have a million followers on Instagram and YouTube; they’re building their brand by traveling to faraway destinations in order to get interesting content and, of course, capitalize on it.”

At the same time, he noted that there are many clients who “travel to extreme places out of interest in global geopolitics or for other personal reasons”, for example, there are people who indulge their vanity and crave only likes and delighted comments from their friends.

One of the regions that is becoming increasingly attractive to them is Central Asia, which has recently opened up for tourists. In the past year, trips to this region - to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan - were the second most popular after North Korea. And in 2020, an “extreme” travel agency launches a new direction - trips to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.