Visited Countries: Travel Count Doesn’t Make You an Expert
A lot of people seem to think that the higher the number of countries they’ve visited, the greater a travel expert they are, even though these two things are unrelated.
Let’s look at why it’s completely irrelevant how many countries someone has visited and why people who may have visited half the number could actually be bigger travel experts.
Number of countries visited
When it comes to travel writing or posting on social media, there’s often a lot of bragging about the number of countries people have visited and the places they’ve travelled to.
In travel news media, it seems that including the travel count in a story’s title has become increasingly popular.
Take for example the following stories with their dreadful headlines about the number of countries visited:
Daily Mail: “I’ve visited 170 countries – these are five of the worst places I’ve been to… and why Canada and France make the list.”
Metro: “I’ve been to 50 countries — there’s only one I’ll never return to.”
Daily Express: “I’ve visited 30 European countries – five cities disappointed me including one UK spot.”
By far the worst offender is Business Insider, which is filled with highly irrelevant or cliché clickbait travel stories written by clueless staffers who know nothing about the world:
One Business Insider article is titled: “I’ve been to 37 countries, and South America is my favorite region. Here are 4 of the best places to visit there.”
Another Business Insider article has this a title “A travel expert who has been to 55 countries says these pricey destinations are better during the fall shoulder season.”
Yet another Business Insider article reads: “I’ve been to over 80 countries, and there are 5 that stand out from the rest.”
It seems that somewhere in the Business Insider style guide, there must be an internal memo specifying that stories must have such boastful headlines, as I have found dozens of similar articles!
Arbitrary metric
All the above headlines rely on the authority argument: Because a person has visited a certain number of countries, they are deemed a travel expert.
Leaving aside the argument that introducing yourself by the number of countries you have visited sounds rather obnoxious and arrogant, such a destination count says nothing about your actual travel experience.
After all, what exactly makes someone a travel expert?
If the number of countries visited is what defines a travel expert, where do you draw the line between expert and an amateur?
The media themselves cannot seem to agree on this, as shown in the examples above, where one person who has been to 30 countries and another who has been to 170 were both listed as travel experts!
The number of countries you have travelled to is therefore a highly arbitrary metric to begin with.
Moreover, it can often be hugely misleading, as someone who has visited 40 countries may sometimes have far more travel experience than someone who has been to 140 or even all nation states in the world.
Why the amount of countries visited doesn’t matter
The biggest reason the number of countries you have visited says nothing about your actual travel experience is that it does not differentiate how much you have seen or how long you have stayed in each country.
Think of it this way: If someone has only spent a day or two in the capital or largest city of your country, would you consider them a travel expert or an authority on your country?
Of course not!
Berlin, with its unique local culture and special vibe, is perhaps the most un-German city in all of Germany, the United Kingdom has far more to offer than just London, and you’ve only scratched the surface of the USA if all you’ve visited is New York.
Then there are countries where the cultural and historic differences between regions are so large that they could very well be two completely different countries, such as Spain, where the Basque Country is a world apart from Andalusia.
In my opinion, someone who has been to Spain and visited both the Basque Country and Andalusia has seen more of the world than a person who has visited Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as those two countries are much alike in culture and natural landscape.
In some countries – like Italy, with its 60 UNESCO World Heritage sites, or vast countries such as China or Russia – you can travel for many months and still encounter numerous new and amazing sights.
Travel records
In the travel community, there really is an unhealthy obsession with the number of countries you have visited.
This is evident in world records, such as the youngest person to have travelled to all sovereign countries, and in the sheer number of people planning trips just to “tick off” a couple of new countries from their list.
Heck, I’ve even seen people travelling from Zurich all the way to Vaduz to spend half an hour in the city just to be able to boast that they have also been to Liechtenstein.
It’s not that they are interested in what Liechtenstein has to offer, even though it has quite a few interesting things to see and do over a few days, they only go there to tick another country off their list.
Instead of using their time to see more of Zurich or take a day trip to another nearby Swiss city like Bern, Lucerne, or St Gallen, they care more about adding another country to their list than experiencing more of the country they are currently in.
Travel goals
The sad reality is that half of the people who boast about having visited a large number of countries are not real travel experts, while some who have visited far fewer may easily have a greater knowledge of travel and the world than those who have visited them all.
Although there is nothing wrong with wanting to travel to every country in the world (I’d love that too), it should never become the guiding principle by which you view travel.
A real traveller takes the time to explore their destination and truly experience all sides of the cultural patchwork, history, and natural scenery of a country, rather than rushing through on a whistle-stop tour just to increase their tally of countries visited.
You can’t claim to be a travel expert if you’ve only spent two or three days in each country, as many nations may take a lifetime to truly do them justice.
In the end, what should matter most is enjoying your time travelling and engaging in the activities you love, not worrying about how many countries you or anyone else has visited.
It’s just as fine to revisit an old favourite destination for the tenth time or explore a country you love more in-depth, rather than visiting a new nation.
Conclusion
Visiting many countries doesn’t automatically make you a travel expert, as such a count doesn’t reflect how much you’ve actually seen or how intensively you’ve travelled in those nations.
A person who has visited 60 countries may have seen more of the world than someone who has travelled to 120, as simply spending a day or two in a country just to “tick it off your list” doesn’t make you a travel expert by any means.
In the world of travel, there is an unhealthy fixation on the number of countries someone has visited.
Rather than focusing on the number of countries visited, there should be a greater emphasis on how you spent your time travelling and how much you’ve actually seen of each place, as that truly sets apart real travel experts from those who only want to brag about records.
