Photos: Coronavirus outbreak sees the world's busiest tourist attractions empty

Take a look at the eerie abandoned tourist hotspots in the photo gallery above.

Not long ago, travellers' biggest problem at many of the world's top tourist attractions was overcrowding.

Now, fear of the coronavirus that has killed more than 3000 worldwide has left many places eerily deserted.

Entire countries have been affected by travel bans and heightened warnings, while cities with major outbreaks of the virus - such as Beijing, Milan and Hanoi - have essentially become giant ghost towns.

The Australian government's travel advice website has raised its warning level for China to "Do not travel" due to the outbreak. It has also issued a "Do not travel warning for Iran. For South Korea it has warned travellers to exercise a high degree of caution and reconsider the need to travel to Daegu and Cheongdo. Travellers to Japan and Italy, which have also experienced significant outbreaks, are also warned to exercise a high degree of caution.

Even those determined to travel to impacted destinations are finding it harder to do so, with multiple countries closing their borders to foreign nationals travelling through China or other locations with confirmed cases of Covid-19, airlines suspending and drastically reducing services.

Some attractions - such as the Forbidden City in Beijing, Tokyo Disneyland and the Louvre Museum in Paris - have been officially closed in response to the unfolding health emergency, while others have simply been abandoned by visitors anxious to avoid contracting the deadly disease.

Take a look at the photo gallery above of just a few of the once-packed sites which now bear a startling resemblance to the likes of the abandoned city of Pripyat near Chernobyl in the Ukraine.

Stuff.co.nz