Chernobyl has been rated as the top exotic place in the world to visit for tourism by Forbes magazine.

Forbes, which publicized the list of the most eccentric tourist places, where it is possible to have a rest and to see unique things, gave this definition to once dangerous area.

When visiting the 30-kilometer exclusion zone after 23 years from the catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, visitors have the most striking experience seeing the blasted reactor, abandoned villages, the dead city Pripyat, and red woods where pines have acquired an orange color due to radiation.

Tour agencies, which offer foreigners trips to Chernobyl for the moderate 70 to 170 U.S. dollars, say even after getting that distinction, tourism has not increased there. Ukrainian tour operators admit that the tourist inflow has apparently got thinner lately basically due to the global financial crisis and H1N1 swine flu outbreak in Ukraine.

Forbes also lists the Galapagos Islands and the world’s coldest place, Antarctica, among the most popular destinations for those who prefer less extreme tours than Chernobyl.

They may also consider unhacked tourist attractions like the capital of North Korea, Dragon’s Blood trees on the ocean island of Socotra in Yemen, the Taktsang Monastery in the last Asian kingdom of Bhutan, and the ancient Russian town Tuva, where guttural singing masters have been living up till now.

BELTA