Getting back together

Hi!
So there is this guy I dated very shortly last year before he had to move to another country. Back then he was really depressed and he didn't really want to continue dating because of the depression and he was sceptical towards long distance. But we had a great connection and I think he liked me. It was just that I fell in love with him somehow very quickly which also scared him a bit... We had some sporadic contact but I asked to do phone calls and he seemed to be pretty excited about talking to me again. He was super nice and attentive.
Now I'm basically trying to establish some kind of friendship again, although of course I would rather want to date him. But I don't want to seem needy. How do I bring up the topic of maybe visiting him without make it sound desperate? He lives very far away, it's a touristy place, worth visiting anyway. Maybe I just ask him if he had any friends visiting so far and if he would like to be visited...? Should I better wait until we had regular contact for several weeks?