What does it take to be one of the most traveled people on the planet? The Extraordinary Travel Festival (ETF), the largest gathering of the world’s most traveled people, today released findings from a survey of attendees at ETF III, held October 22–25, 2026 at the Ambassador Hotel in Bangkok.
The results offer a rare, data-driven portrait of a community that measures life in passport stamps, flight segments and countries counted. They show who these travelers are, where they come from, how much they travel, and where they still dream of going.
A community counted in countries
The typical ETF attendee has visited 106 of the world’s 193 UN member states. 59% have been to 100 or more countries, and 17% have completed all 193, a feat only about 500 known people can claim.
For many, the count is the quest. 37% are chasing all 193 UN countries, and 27% are pursuing longer lists of 195, 204, 225 or more destinations that include territories and disputed regions. NomadMania (20%), Most Traveled People (17%) and the Travelers’ Century Club (16%) are the most-cited ranking clubs.
Yet this is not purely a numbers game. Nearly a third of attendees (32%) say they are chasing “nothing” or “experiences, not numbers.”
Born everywhere, living anywhere
Attendees were born in 47 countries. One in three (34%) was born in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom (7%), the Philippines (5%), Australia (5%), Denmark (4%) and Canada (4%).
Where they live now tells a different story. 15% are fully nomadic, with no permanent home, making “nomad” the second most common place of residence after the United States (28%). Expat hubs pull hard: fewer than 1% were born in Thailand, but 5% now live there, and 4% live in the United Arab Emirates.
The world’s most traveled are not only retirees. 69% of attendees are between 30 and 59, and people in their 40s are the largest single group (26%). Another 24% are 60 or older, including 2% aged 80 and above.
Life on the road
The typical attendee spends about four months a year away from home, pays for around 100 nights of accommodation, takes roughly 35 flight segments, and spends about US$25,000 on travel. At the far end of the scale, the numbers climb fast:
- 57% travel 120 or more days a year, and 15% travel 270 or more.
- 67% pay for 90 or more nights of accommodation a year.
- 69% take 30 or more flight segments a year, and 8% take 120 or more.
- 49% spend US$30,000 or more a year on travel, and 7% spend US$100,000 or more.
Many of the heaviest travelers said they fund much of their travel with airline miles and hotel points. Several declined to give a figure at all, answering simply “too much” or “I don’t want to know.”
Where the most traveled still want to go
Asked for their dream destination, the world’s most traveled named places most people never consider. Antarctica and the South Pole lead (9%), followed by the Pacific islands such as Tokelau, Nauru and Vanuatu (7%), North Korea (6%) and Japan (6%). Greenland and the Arctic, Yemen and Socotra, and Central Asia each drew 5%.
For 4%, Earth is no longer enough: they named space, Mars or the Moon. Others listed Tristan da Cunha, Bouvet Island and Bir Tawil, the unclaimed patch of desert between Egypt and Sudan.
The stories behind the numbers
Asked what makes their travels unique, attendees described journeys as distinctive as the people taking them:
- One of the most traveled Nigerians in the world, traveling entirely on a Nigerian passport, visiting over 100 countries
- The first Philippine to visit all 193 countries in a Filipino passport
- The first Turkish woman to visit all 193 countries
- A traveler who has ridden a roller coaster in 90 UN countries, and others who watch a football match or get a shave from a local barber in every country
- A journey for nearly 10 years through every country without flying or returning home
- A traveler who has couchsurfed in 170 countries
- A traveler who visited every country, the North and South Pole, and Outerspace
- A traveler who has played the bagpipes in over 130 countries
- A traveling magician who has performed from North Korea to the Highlands of PNG to the prisons of Central America
- A family whose story fits in one line: “One Mum. Three Kids. 193 Countries.”
“A community like no other”
“People always ask who goes to an event like this, and now we can show them,” said Ric Gazarian, Co-Founder and Organizer of the Extraordinary Travel Festival. “More than half of our attendees have been to over 100 countries, and one in six has been to every country on Earth. But what struck me most is that a third of them aren’t counting at all. They’re chasing experiences. That’s the heart of ETF: whether you’re on country 50 or country 193, you belong in this room.”
