· BIG ISSUES ·
Is Country Counting a Fun Hobby or Harmful Vanity?
Scribbled by Claire ◊ 06 Aug 2024
Do you count the number of countries you have visited? It’s a fashionable thing to do nowadays, especially on social media. Here, we discuss why someone might do it and what the potential harm could be.
It’s the fashionable thing now, to count (and share) the number of countries visited (and sometimes U.S. states), particularly among travel enthusiasts and bloggers.
A lot of people on Instagram chase these country-counting goals and it is an intriguing and controversial concept (I love a bit of debate when it comes to writing posts!). On the face of it, the act seems harmless, but is it?
It raises some questions: do you think it is helpful to count the number of countries you have visited? If so, are you more likely to follow a blogger that also does this, and do you respect them more if their number is higher? How do you think counting countries affects the way you choose to travel?
Let’s figure it out (I’m probably going to offend about the half the audience here because opinions are pretty divided!).
IN THIS GUIDE //
Country Counting – What’s the Deal?
COUNTRY COUNTING – WHY DO PEOPLE DO IT?
SHOULD WE COUNT COUNTRIES?
WHAT COUNTS AS A COUNTRY VISIT?
IS IT FAIR TO COMPARE COUNTRY COUNT LISTS?
ARE YOU IMPRESSED BY SOMEONE WHO HAS VISITED A LOT OF COUNTRIES?
MY COUNTRY COUNTING NUMBER AND SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
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Why Do People Count the Countries They’ve Visited?
The way I see it, it’s likely people count the countries they’ve visited for one of two reasons:
1. as a personal target
2. for status or credibility, like a badge of honour
Rarely would anyone declare that they are the latter, but we all know it’s a real thing. You may know a few people personally (or maybe this is you – if so then I’d love to hear your perspective!).
Moreover, it depends on who the person is – do they gain something out of their number? Are they an influencer or blogger? Do they collect countries to look more knowledgeable or experienced in their field? Or maybe they are a travel enthusiast with a competitive streak and something to prove?
For Personal Targets
First, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with having a personal target motivating you to reach your goals. The ‘30 countries before you’re 30’ is a popular one. I have questions still: what if you don’t want to visit every country? What do you get from counting? How do you decide your specific target number?
Some people claim that they like to keep track of where they’ve been, so they count the number of countries they have visited. This one doesn’t really make sense though, since you do not need to attach a number to do that. Those scratch maps are all the rage right now and don’t include a total.
For Status or Credibility
Certainly, some people use the number of countries they’ve visited as a way of raising their status, or in he travel industry, their credibility.
Ask yourself – do you think that a travel blogger might inflate their experience to sell their brand? As the audience of a travel blog, do you care how many countries I have been to? Or are the stories and information more important? Does the number of countries fundamentally matter?
Instagram is particularly toxic for this. There are profiles descriptions everywhere that list the number of countries and states visited, using up the tiny number of characters available that could instead provide some actual, meaningful information about the person you are following.
Is There Any Harm in Counting Countries?
So, should we count countries? What are the positives and negatives of this trend?
Benefits of having a Country Count
The benefits of counting countries go beyond a number:
Off beat | visiting Burundi, Eritrea, Pakistan, Paraguay or other less-travelled destinations because a country list pushes someone to explore new regions can only be a good thing. Especially when mass tourism has such a negative impact on popular places like Barcelona, Dubrovnik, and Venice (to mention just a few).
Spreading the love (and money) is awesome for everyone, and the planet! At least it might stop people flocking to Benidorm for the 85th time.
Motivation | fundamentally, a personal list does zero harm. If you count the number of countries to motivate yourself – keep going! If you are using your list for evil, maybe curb how often you share it.
Inspiration | does your list inspire others close to you? Inspiring friends and family to get out and see the world in whatever way they are comfortable is only ever a great thing.
Experience | experiencing many, varied countries, even superficially, is still of amazing personal value to most people.
Negatives of having a Country Count
There is a long list of negatives that can potentially result from travelling for the sake of a number:
Shallow | it encourages insubstantial, superficial travel; the type that is fundamentally unsustainable. Although not everyone can afford the time to slow travel, encouraging extra fast travel should never be acceptable, with climate change, gentrification, environmental issues and more, all stemming from our travel convenience culture.
Competition | it turns travelling into a competition, when in reality it should be an individually mapped, personal journey. This unnecessary competition can lead to judgement even though travel is supposed to open-minds.
Experience | a country isn’t defined by big tourist attractions, but by people, vendors, streets, food, art and all their interactions. It is less likely that anyone with a huge country list has had time to experience all that.
Quality | from a blogging point of view, I look for quality over quantity, every time. When a blogger adds an ‘X countries’ to their bio, I question what their expertise is. Would you prefer a blog from someone who has been to many countries? Or who specialises in only a few?
Expertise | for generic travel tips and tricks (things like packing, booking flights, planning and other logistics) it mostly doesn’t matter where your chosen travel blogger has been. It would be equally valuable to have long-term on the road experience instead of short stays in 100 countries.
Note | there are lots of people who have large country counts who do not fit the above, and are amazing travellers with tonnes of experience. These are just some potential negatives that could result from ‘collecting countries’ and making travel all about a number.
What Counts as a Country Visit?
Counting countries is ambiguous and subjective. What defines a visit to a country?
◊ There is this (new?) concept that someone has ‘done’ a country; that visiting China or the USA ‘counts’ by staying a week in Beijing or New York, when the respective countries are so vast that it is impossible to ever ‘tick off’ a country so huge. Would you consider someone to have ‘seen’ Mexico by spending a week in Cancun?
◊ On the other hand, I spent a week in tiny little Luxembourg – is that equivalent?
◊ ‘Done’ suggests that you can finish exploring a country – do you think it is even possible?
Other considerations:
Airport | do you have to leave the airport to count as having visited a country? What about driving directly across a US state without exiting your car?
All-inclusive | what if you exit the airport, but do not leave an all-inclusive resort?
Childhood | would you count any trip you took as a kid that you hardly remember?
Time | is there a specific amount of time that you would require to spend there?
Eat | do you have to have a meal there?
How is it even plausible to quantify this country-counting thing and, even when you do, how do you take any value from it when everyone has a different metric for their list?
My argument may sound pretty pedantic, and I agree that in some cases it is. However, when people claim they have expertise and make money based on a travelling number, they should qualify how they calculated it.
Is it Fair To Compare Country Counting Lists?
Most people likely take pride in their country count. Depending on where you are from the world though, your geographical privilege makes ticking off countries a vastly different beast.
Country-Counting: Europeans
Consider somebody who lives on the European continent.
It is straightforward for many Europeans to visit loads of countries, very cheaply. There are 44 countries in Europe, and also easily accessible countries in the Middle East and northern Africa, many reached via budget airlines within a few hours.
In Europe, not only are there lots of super-affordable airlines, but many people have generous paid leave (compared with Americans, anyway), and (mostly) free healthcare at point of access across the continent. It makes quick weekend trips common because they are simple, accessible, low risk and cheap.
In the United Kingdom alone, there is England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland – do they count as individual countries?
This ease of travel does not necessarily equate to any kind of in-depth travelling, though, and certainly would not necessarily instil faith in a travel blogger who calculated their country count by travelling this way. (I’m reminded of drunken English two-night stag-dos in Bratislava here – honestly how much of Slovakia do they really see?).
Their country count could be large, though!
Country-Counting: Canadians, New Zealanders and Australians
Conversely, consider people from Canada, New Zealand and Australia, who are far, far away from being able to hop about between destinations so easily.
Does that fundamentally mean they are less valuable, knowledge-wise, if they have spent, for example, many months in large, diverse countries, like Indonesia and Brazil, instead of hopping about in Europe? I guess the answer is ‘partly’?
Their country count would not be as high as a Europeans, at any rate, without lots more money and time.
Country-Counting: Cruise Addicts
Consider a cruise addict.
Ticking countries off a list after visiting for an afternoon as part of some mass-tourism mega-cruise just takes this counting fad to the extreme. Signing up for a European cruise followed by a Caribbean cruise could bag you as a many as 25-30 countries in less than a month! However, this would be a very shallow experience, seeing only the port and maybe one tourist attraction per country.
It doesn’t seem reasonable to determine someone’s worth in the travel world based on their country count. It’s just geographical privilege most of the time that allows those higher numbers.
Are You Impressed By Someone Who Has Visited Lots of Countries?
It is quite likely that a person who has visited 100 countries has seen a lot of the world. Certainly, they will have experienced an array of diverse people, food, architecture, and scenery. I’d consider it reasonably impressive.
Consider this scenario:
To visit the capital cities of 100 countries for 5 days each, you would have devoted 500 days travelling to distinct places, likely across five or six continents. This would be a very beneficial experience for a traveller (I would imagine), but how does that compare to staying in just South America or Southeast Asia for 500 days?
Does 500 days in one region provide more or less travel credibility than the 100-country, capital city hopper? I’d argue that they both deliver huge merit and authority. I’d expect (but could be wrong) that the one-region, more in-depth traveller might even have more exciting stories to tell and, to me, would not be lacking in travel credentials just because they don’t have ‘visited 100 countries’ plastered across their social media profile.
Another scenario:
The assumptions above can also be applied to the U.S. and Europe. They’re quite comparable, covering around the same area, with 44 countries in Europe and 50 states in the United States.
Travelling to one of these examples provides one country to tick off a list, where the other provides 44. The number of countries you have visited shouldn’t determine your status in the travel community.
My Country Counting Number
Ok, so I’m biased. I’m a huge proponent of slow, sustainable travel.
Visiting 100 countries on flying visits does not appeal to me; I get tired, quickly. I often choose to max out my stays based on the visa lengths in most countries! However, I am not going to judge other travellers for having targets and I hope every person can achieve whatever their personal goals are.
Guessing, I’ve probably visited around 60 countries, but I have no desire to count them. I also do not have a clue if that would be considered a lot (again I’m European so it’s easy for me to inflate that number with minimal experience). Certainly, some countries I have spent very little time in, so maybe I shouldn’t count them?
My expertise comes from the length of time I spend travelling in a region – more than two years in north America, nine months in the Middle East, several years in southeast Asia (so far), and a bunch more. I’m happy counting time, rather than countries.
Although, I do have a list of specific countries that I desperately want to visit because they interest me – that’s my list.
Final Thoughts
In my opinion, country-counting is not an issue if you don’t try to artificially profit from it, put someone else down, or use it to enhance your experience or knowledge. Everyone should set themselves goals that motivate them! I just don’t think it represents how ‘well-travelled’ a person is.
Also, I say ‘not an issue’ assuming it is done with some kind of responsibility and sustainability in mind. Please don’t just take 12 short-haul flights around Europe to fit in as many countries as possible into your three-week vacation!
Finally, on a personal note, I would honestly much prefer to hear about some interesting on-the-ground experiences than the number of airports somebody has visited.
It’s the experiences that shape a person, not the number of passport stamps.
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Thank you, Claire + Nick
I really like your blog. Thanks a lot for sharing your insights/opinion about this topic.
Personally, as a Filipino who travels with a weaker passport and coming from a family that’s really not affluent, I try to travel as many countries as I can — feeling proud whenever I’m able to cross another land , thinking I’m somehow representing my fellow Filipinos who would have wanted to travel as much but in a much worse situation than I am financially or just by circumstance. Besides that personal pride I am getting, I am truly fascinated with the newness of experience for every country I visit. I am always amused by the nuances of the differences and similarities each of us has (as far as I have gone to), and everything that I’m able to see, smell, hear, taste and feel in a new country. I honestly would have wanted to do more slow travel and stay in all countries I’ve been to longer — but I am working a 9-5 job and my leaves are limited. So I do the best I can to budget money and be in as many countries as I can in such a limited time, whenever I can. Perhaps it’s the novelty of the experience I am after each trip and the thrill of surprises that comes along with it. I still need to really think deeply more about my motivation and my ways of travelling at the moment. And I’m certainly with you on this: “It’s the experiences that shape a person, not the number of passport stamps.”
Really glad to have come across your blog!