Which is the largest city in your country that attracts very very few tourists, and WHY?
July 11, 2025
as title, VERY FEW or almost no tourists at all
31 comments
Eindhoven in the netherlands, I expect
Its a non pretty engineering town without the typical dutch centre
Birmingham in the uk.
Not sure, but if i where to make a guess, either Drammen or Kristiansand
Both really boring cities with nothing to do in them,
Hannover. Half a million inhabitants and the only reason a lot of people go there is their exhibition center with some notable trade fairs.
Birmingham, easily.
It’s the second-largest city in the UK with a population of over a million people, but there’s very little reason for tourists to go there.
At best, people tend to go through it on the way to somewhere else. Unless of course they want to visit Britain’s one and only (I think?) coffin museum.
It’s not got a lot of history before the 19th century. It used to have a lot of beautiful Victorian architecture that might have been more of a draw for tourists, but the Luftwaffe and the post-war town council saw to all that and now it’s known for its hideous brutalist look.
Ostrava. Which is a pity because it has so much to offer – industrial heritage, castles in its proximity, beautiful nature nearby.
Ostrava – ~283k, 3rd largest (though the locals will try to claim 2nd)
It of course gets a lot of domestic visitors (as any larger city, people coming for amenities not in their hometowns) and there are some sights (Dolní Vítkovice) and a massive music festival, but besides that, i can’t imagine there being much of interest for international visitors.
It’s nearby the Beskydy mountains though, so visitors going there might transit through the city
Charleroi. It’s the fourth biggest Belgian city, first biggest Walloon city. It gets some domestic tourism and tourism from neighbouring countries from people interested in urbex and industrial cityscapes, but it’s really fringe.
Amadora (Portugal) its the 4th biggest. Nothing to see and very dangerous. The train that goes to Sintra (huge touristic spot) goes throught it.
I want to say Aalborg since the attractions aren’t that centralized. Pretty city but too far away for the Germans to care
In England, pretty much anywhere that’s not London doesn’t recieve that many international tourists.
The second most visited city in England by international tourists is Manchester (it’s also the second largest by population). It receives 1.7m foreign tourists a year, which is less than 10% of London’s 22m.
The only city IMO in England that feels as touristy as London is Bath, and maybe Oxford and Cambridge too. While those cities don’t recieve *that* many tourists by number when compared to London, their resident populations are small so it just feels more tourist oriented as a result as the resident to tourist ratio is lower than London.
Some villages in the Cotswolds like Castle Combe or Bourton are extreme examples of this; basically nobody lives there anymore as it’s all AirBnb and overpriced restaurants and pubs aimed at tourists. Similar to Positano, Portofino, Dubrovnik etc I suppose.
I guess Almere is a strong contender. Because its a city without any history or interesting landmarks. Eindhoven would be a strong contender as well, being not the kost pretty city. But apparently their industrial heritage and branding as design capital of The Netherlands does attract a lot of tourists. Basically any city without a charming city center and interesting landmarks/museums are less likely to attract tourists. There is an abundance of midsized cities and even smaller towns which are pretty and therefore attract some tourists. Foreigners often only know Amsterdam and maybe Utrecht but there are tons of other interesting places to visit. Often these are cities and towns local tourists like to visit.
I’d say Zaragoza. Almost 700k inhabitants, fifth largest city after Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla.
As for the why: it is not a coastal city, and its population comes mainly from its position (right in the middle between Madrid and Barcelona), but from a tourist perspective it doesn’t have a whole lot to offer, compared with other cities in the top 10.
I don’t have the data to back this up but I would say Zaragoza, it’s the fifth Spanish city by population but it’s in the middle of nowhere, doesn’t have any beaches nor any major attraction.
I personally like it, El Pilar cathedral is a marvel and it has a nice city center but I can see why it wouldn’t get enough tourism
Apart from what other commenters have mentioned for Germany, I would say Dortmund and Essen which are the 9th and 10th biggest cites respectively, population-wise with more than 550k each.
Of ocurse, there is some football tourism for Dortmund.
As to why? These cities are not “classically” beautiful, they are former industrial hubs and a lot of architectural beauty was lost during WW2. They are gritty and the people are tough but sincere and easy-going.
I am originally from the region and don’t understand what tourists would do there. But maybe I am wrong?
For Poland I’d say Katowice. If you count the full metro population is it arguably the biggest city in Poland, but it does not have many tourists.
It isn’t the capital like Warsaw, it doesn’t have a coast like Gdansk or mountains like Zakopane, it doesn’t have a famous “old town” like Krakow or Torun. The one thing it does have is Auschwitz, but it is so little a tourist city that most people seem to think that Auschwitz is just outside of Krakow when in reality Krakow is more than double as far away.
In Italy I would say Bari, 9nth for population and probably not in the 50 most visited places.
My first thought was Stavanger/Sandnes, but then I realized a lot of people will probably end up going there as they go to visit pulpit rock. So I guess Drammen or Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg. They’re both at around 120k people, and they’re both situated in the East pretty far from the natural wonders which is what most people want to see when they go to Norway.
For Northern Ireland, its third largest urban settlement, Newtonabbey. Simple, it’s a commuter town of Belfast.
Winterthur, sixth-largest city of the country. Not far away from Zurich and a bit overshadowed by it. There is a cool art and theatre scene going on, an extremely cool hand-on science and physics museum, nice parks and forests around it. But have you ever heard of it?
Linz, probably. It’s the 3rd biggest city and not touristy at all. It‘s actually quite nice with a pretty old town, but it never got over its reputation of being just an industrial town. There might be some tourists who stop there on a river cruise, but not that many, because even the cruises focus on more cutesy places further downstream.
Chemnitz in Saxony. Yes, Chemnitz has a Nazi problem. Yes, it’s rough. But it’s not a lost cause. The counter-scene is alive — clubs, collectives, culture that fights back. “Kosmos Chemnitz” wasn’t decoration. It was defiance.
In Romania, Iași. Because it is not a highway to Iași.
Not a big city in France, but Belfort is the city that apparently doesn’t get many tourists.
Austria – Linz comes to mind as the 3rd largest city with from what I could find about 4% of tourists. Reasons are straightforward – tourists either come to Vienna for city tourism or to western or Southern Austria for lakes, mountains, well, nature generally. Meanwhile linz is an industrial city with very little to see or do (compared to the alternatives of course). Admittedly, as an Austrian, I haven’t visited it either, besides a short stop on a school trip to see the Mauthausen concentration camp
I would say for Ireland that it would be Limerick, but not through it’s own faults (it’s a nice enough city). It just doesn’t have anything going on than probably getting through it to get to the Burren/Cliffs of Moher.
That or that one other comment that said Newtownabbey, I live in Ireland and I’ve never heard of it before (which I’m ashamed to say lol)
I would guess Larissa.
5th largest city and by far the largest not close to the sea/coast.
It is in the centre of the Thessaly Plain, the biggest agricultural hub in the country and thus is a big economic centre.
Also, while everywhere in Greece there are places of interest from antiquity/byzantine eras, Larisa is lacking in that regard.
I’d guess it has almost zero foreign tourists. But as a place that is a manageable driving distance from me, I always had a nice time when visiting friends there. Bars/cafes/restaurants and tavernas are top notch and you can’t eat such Ewe Ribs anywhere else in the world.
In Italy probably Genova. Mostly because it has long had an industrial vocation (despite being a bit rusty now) and because locals aren’t fond of foreigners, including other Italians. They want to keep the city for themselves.
In Italy, Turin. It has almost 1 million people. I like it a lot, very elegant, royal, big spaces.
I think it is not seen as the typical “dolce vita” “messy” Italian city.
If we count satellite cities, then Espoo and Vantaa. They are second and fourth largest cities in Finland, respectively. However, both are part of Helsinki metropolitan area and Helsinki does get significant amount of tourists.
Of other urban areas I would highlight Tampere, which is nicknamed “Manchester of Finland” due to its industrial past. It was just a small village until James Finlayson, a Scotsman, established a cotton mill close to Tammerkoski rapids in 1800s. Nowadays its the second largest urban area in Finland with a population of 260,000 in its city limits.
In France I’d say the north tip of the country (Lille and the area around) is one of the most populated area but it is not touristic at all. The weather is not great and it’s very industrial, so there’s really no reason to go there on holidays. That can be extended to a lot of major cities in the north part of the country : Metz, Nancy, Le Havre, Cherbourg, Rouen, Rennes. All these are fairly large cities but they don’t attract tourists who prefer to go in the nearby countryside or coasts if it’s close to the sea.
I’d say our third biggest city Malmö. Most visitors only visit the city in order to take the Öresund bridge to Copenhagen.
31 comments
Eindhoven in the netherlands, I expect
Its a non pretty engineering town without the typical dutch centre
Birmingham in the uk.
Not sure, but if i where to make a guess, either Drammen or Kristiansand
Both really boring cities with nothing to do in them,
Hannover. Half a million inhabitants and the only reason a lot of people go there is their exhibition center with some notable trade fairs.
Birmingham, easily.
It’s the second-largest city in the UK with a population of over a million people, but there’s very little reason for tourists to go there.
At best, people tend to go through it on the way to somewhere else. Unless of course they want to visit Britain’s one and only (I think?) coffin museum.
It’s not got a lot of history before the 19th century. It used to have a lot of beautiful Victorian architecture that might have been more of a draw for tourists, but the Luftwaffe and the post-war town council saw to all that and now it’s known for its hideous brutalist look.
Ostrava. Which is a pity because it has so much to offer – industrial heritage, castles in its proximity, beautiful nature nearby.
Ostrava – ~283k, 3rd largest (though the locals will try to claim 2nd)
It of course gets a lot of domestic visitors (as any larger city, people coming for amenities not in their hometowns) and there are some sights (Dolní Vítkovice) and a massive music festival, but besides that, i can’t imagine there being much of interest for international visitors.
It’s nearby the Beskydy mountains though, so visitors going there might transit through the city
Charleroi. It’s the fourth biggest Belgian city, first biggest Walloon city. It gets some domestic tourism and tourism from neighbouring countries from people interested in urbex and industrial cityscapes, but it’s really fringe.
Amadora (Portugal) its the 4th biggest. Nothing to see and very dangerous. The train that goes to Sintra (huge touristic spot) goes throught it.
I want to say Aalborg since the attractions aren’t that centralized. Pretty city but too far away for the Germans to care
In England, pretty much anywhere that’s not London doesn’t recieve that many international tourists.
The second most visited city in England by international tourists is Manchester (it’s also the second largest by population). It receives 1.7m foreign tourists a year, which is less than 10% of London’s 22m.
The only city IMO in England that feels as touristy as London is Bath, and maybe Oxford and Cambridge too. While those cities don’t recieve *that* many tourists by number when compared to London, their resident populations are small so it just feels more tourist oriented as a result as the resident to tourist ratio is lower than London.
Some villages in the Cotswolds like Castle Combe or Bourton are extreme examples of this; basically nobody lives there anymore as it’s all AirBnb and overpriced restaurants and pubs aimed at tourists. Similar to Positano, Portofino, Dubrovnik etc I suppose.
I guess Almere is a strong contender. Because its a city without any history or interesting landmarks. Eindhoven would be a strong contender as well, being not the kost pretty city. But apparently their industrial heritage and branding as design capital of The Netherlands does attract a lot of tourists. Basically any city without a charming city center and interesting landmarks/museums are less likely to attract tourists. There is an abundance of midsized cities and even smaller towns which are pretty and therefore attract some tourists. Foreigners often only know Amsterdam and maybe Utrecht but there are tons of other interesting places to visit. Often these are cities and towns local tourists like to visit.
I’d say Zaragoza. Almost 700k inhabitants, fifth largest city after Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla.
As for the why: it is not a coastal city, and its population comes mainly from its position (right in the middle between Madrid and Barcelona), but from a tourist perspective it doesn’t have a whole lot to offer, compared with other cities in the top 10.
I don’t have the data to back this up but I would say Zaragoza, it’s the fifth Spanish city by population but it’s in the middle of nowhere, doesn’t have any beaches nor any major attraction.
I personally like it, El Pilar cathedral is a marvel and it has a nice city center but I can see why it wouldn’t get enough tourism
Apart from what other commenters have mentioned for Germany, I would say Dortmund and Essen which are the 9th and 10th biggest cites respectively, population-wise with more than 550k each.
Of ocurse, there is some football tourism for Dortmund.
As to why? These cities are not “classically” beautiful, they are former industrial hubs and a lot of architectural beauty was lost during WW2. They are gritty and the people are tough but sincere and easy-going.
I am originally from the region and don’t understand what tourists would do there. But maybe I am wrong?
For Poland I’d say Katowice. If you count the full metro population is it arguably the biggest city in Poland, but it does not have many tourists.
It isn’t the capital like Warsaw, it doesn’t have a coast like Gdansk or mountains like Zakopane, it doesn’t have a famous “old town” like Krakow or Torun. The one thing it does have is Auschwitz, but it is so little a tourist city that most people seem to think that Auschwitz is just outside of Krakow when in reality Krakow is more than double as far away.
In Italy I would say Bari, 9nth for population and probably not in the 50 most visited places.
My first thought was Stavanger/Sandnes, but then I realized a lot of people will probably end up going there as they go to visit pulpit rock. So I guess Drammen or Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg. They’re both at around 120k people, and they’re both situated in the East pretty far from the natural wonders which is what most people want to see when they go to Norway.
For Northern Ireland, its third largest urban settlement, Newtonabbey. Simple, it’s a commuter town of Belfast.
Winterthur, sixth-largest city of the country. Not far away from Zurich and a bit overshadowed by it. There is a cool art and theatre scene going on, an extremely cool hand-on science and physics museum, nice parks and forests around it. But have you ever heard of it?
Linz, probably. It’s the 3rd biggest city and not touristy at all. It‘s actually quite nice with a pretty old town, but it never got over its reputation of being just an industrial town. There might be some tourists who stop there on a river cruise, but not that many, because even the cruises focus on more cutesy places further downstream.
Chemnitz in Saxony. Yes, Chemnitz has a Nazi problem. Yes, it’s rough. But it’s not a lost cause. The counter-scene is alive — clubs, collectives, culture that fights back. “Kosmos Chemnitz” wasn’t decoration. It was defiance.
In Romania, Iași. Because it is not a highway to Iași.
Not a big city in France, but Belfort is the city that apparently doesn’t get many tourists.
Austria – Linz comes to mind as the 3rd largest city with from what I could find about 4% of tourists. Reasons are straightforward – tourists either come to Vienna for city tourism or to western or Southern Austria for lakes, mountains, well, nature generally. Meanwhile linz is an industrial city with very little to see or do (compared to the alternatives of course). Admittedly, as an Austrian, I haven’t visited it either, besides a short stop on a school trip to see the Mauthausen concentration camp
I would say for Ireland that it would be Limerick, but not through it’s own faults (it’s a nice enough city). It just doesn’t have anything going on than probably getting through it to get to the Burren/Cliffs of Moher.
That or that one other comment that said Newtownabbey, I live in Ireland and I’ve never heard of it before (which I’m ashamed to say lol)
I would guess Larissa.
5th largest city and by far the largest not close to the sea/coast.
It is in the centre of the Thessaly Plain, the biggest agricultural hub in the country and thus is a big economic centre.
Also, while everywhere in Greece there are places of interest from antiquity/byzantine eras, Larisa is lacking in that regard.
I’d guess it has almost zero foreign tourists. But as a place that is a manageable driving distance from me, I always had a nice time when visiting friends there. Bars/cafes/restaurants and tavernas are top notch and you can’t eat such Ewe Ribs anywhere else in the world.
In Italy probably Genova. Mostly because it has long had an industrial vocation (despite being a bit rusty now) and because locals aren’t fond of foreigners, including other Italians. They want to keep the city for themselves.
In Italy, Turin. It has almost 1 million people. I like it a lot, very elegant, royal, big spaces.
I think it is not seen as the typical “dolce vita” “messy” Italian city.
If we count satellite cities, then Espoo and Vantaa. They are second and fourth largest cities in Finland, respectively. However, both are part of Helsinki metropolitan area and Helsinki does get significant amount of tourists.
Of other urban areas I would highlight Tampere, which is nicknamed “Manchester of Finland” due to its industrial past. It was just a small village until James Finlayson, a Scotsman, established a cotton mill close to Tammerkoski rapids in 1800s. Nowadays its the second largest urban area in Finland with a population of 260,000 in its city limits.
In France I’d say the north tip of the country (Lille and the area around) is one of the most populated area but it is not touristic at all. The weather is not great and it’s very industrial, so there’s really no reason to go there on holidays. That can be extended to a lot of major cities in the north part of the country : Metz, Nancy, Le Havre, Cherbourg, Rouen, Rennes. All these are fairly large cities but they don’t attract tourists who prefer to go in the nearby countryside or coasts if it’s close to the sea.
I’d say our third biggest city Malmö. Most visitors only visit the city in order to take the Öresund bridge to Copenhagen.