At the launch dinner Joanna Reeve, General Manager for the UK & Ireland at Intrepid, explained the need for travel agents and their clients to more frequently consider lesser-known destinations, given 80% of travellers visit only 10-20% of the world’s destinations.
“At Intrepid, we don’t believe the answer to overtourism is simply travelling less, we believe it’s about travelling better,” she said. “With our Not Hot List, we hope to spread the benefit of tourism more widely and inspire travellers to discover different and unique experiences.”
The small-group adventure operator in partnership with travel trend forecasting agency Globetrender has identified the 10 destinations on the list based on three key criteria: (1) being lesser-visited, with fewer visitors than comparable places; (2) demonstrating tourism readiness, with infrastructure and capacity to support more tourists; and (3) new in 2027, with new initiatives, launches or openings in the region.
To help bring some of these destinations into the spotlight, Intrepid has added five new tours to its portfolio of more than 1,000 for 2027. These are the 10-day Kenya Safari Adventure; 16-day Wild Canada & Alaska; 10-day Hike Sri Lanka’s Pekoe Trail; 12-day Jordan Uncovered; and 9-day Trek the Trans-Caucasian Trail in Georgia.
“Taking travellers beyond the obvious places is something that’s been really core to Intrepid from the very beginning,” said Reeve, adding: “It’s one of the ways we can help mitigate overtourism in destinations alongside other practices, like keeping our groups small, using public transport where we can, and working with locally owned suppliers and tour leaders.”
Jenny Southan, founder of Globetrender, then revealed the full Not Hot List along with a taster of the reasons why each destination has been chosen. See the full list below.
The 2027 Not Hot List
1. Samburu National Reserve, Kenya
“This is a wilder, less crowded safari alternative where community conservation directly supports local livelihoods and wildlife protection. The bigger story, of course, is tourism dispersal, encouraging visitors beyond Kenya’s most heavily visited parks.”
2. Mestia, Georgia
“There’s been some new infrastructure investment that’s helping transform this spectacular destination into a year-round hub for hiking, skiing, and outdoor adventure, while generating economic opportunities for surrounding villages.”
3. Northern Highlands, Jordan
“As the country looks to diversify tourism beyond its best-known sites and rebuild momentum after the recent crisis earlier this year, the Northern Highlands offers the chance to stay in locally-owned guesthouses, eat with local families, and trek through forest reserves.”
4. Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
“Whitehorse has a new Arctic tourism initiative that’s positioning the city as a hub for community-led cultural, wildlife and adventure tourism, with Yukon First Nations history, culture, and stewardship central to the experience.”
5. Alonnisos, Greece
“Alonnisos is a quieter, untamed alternative to Greece’s overtouristed hotspots, and home to Europe’s largest marine protected area, where tourism directly supports conservation as well as the local economy.”
6. Dili, Timor-Leste
“Tourism here is still really nascent, which means travellers shouldn’t expect somewhere that’s been extensively built or polished yet for international visitors. But that’s, of course, part of its appeal. They’ve got new flight routes from Kuala Lumpur and Darwin that launched this year, and Dili’s becoming more accessible for travellers looking for culture and outdoor adventure in somewhere that still feels genuinely pioneering.”
7. Pekoe Trail, Sri Lanka
“Sri Lanka’s first long-distance walking trail, established a few years ago, takes travellers through tea estates, cloud forests, mountains, rivers, remote villages, and world heritage landscapes. It’s got relaxed visa rules and new flight routes that make the country increasingly accessible, and I think it’s a brilliant example of how a new tourism product in the form of this walking trail can really help redistribute visitors around an already popular destination.”
8. Liepāja, Latvia
“Liepāja is a beach city that’s been nicknamed the ‘Baltic Mediterranean’, and next year, it’s going to be the European Capital of Culture 2027. I think this is really going to put the destination on the map in terms of international tourism.”
9. Carretera Austral, Chile
“Carretera Austral is a road stretching more than 1,000 kilometres through Chilean Patagonia, connecting dramatically different ecosystems along the way. It’s essentially Patagonia's road less travelled, and this year the government began a multi-million-pound project to upgrade key pieces of infrastructure along the way.”
10. Dalsland, Sweden
“Described as Sweden’s Lake District, Dalsland is a landscape of lakes, forests, and wilderness where travellers can kayak, hike, wild camp, and take on some pretty epic gravel biking. It’s a bit more accessible, thanks to a new rail link, and this is significant because improved rail connectivity can put a previously overlooked destination within easy reach, without fundamentally changing what makes it appealing in the first place, which is that it’s quite remote.”
Find out more about these destinations at intrepidtravel.com/uk/not-hot-list.
