Nomad Mania is the only website or “authority” that has attempted to verify what travellers say they have done. First, they authenticate you as a “real person”. Then one very hard-working member from Switzerland spends hours, days or whatever time is necessary to verify the traveller in two separate categories, each independently verified: United Nations countries and Nomad Mania 1301 Regions. These “qualifications” are listed next to your name in Nomad Mania by various badges.
Other measures of the amount of travel are World Heritage Sites + Tentative WHS, the NM Series General Ranking (listing 57,000 places) and NM’s TBT (The Biggest Traveler). TBT may be the most reliable measure of travel as it takes into account all ranking systems and includes 21 categories of items. Stewart is #19 and I am #11. TBT offers a badge and has another verification for the top 10.
What follows is a listing of all Canadians who have supposedly attained 193 and/or their Nomad Mania qualification.
1. NM1301 & UN Verified. (#1-38) None
2. NM Members, UN and NM Region Verified. TBT #109
#24 Daniel Walker Born 1941. Originally from Canada, has lived in Costa Rica since 1991 and is listed under this country in NM where he is #1 in the country.
Finished at age 66 in 2007 (Mongolia). Link to personal website: https://www.talisphere.com/travel/. Sold his business in Victoria in 1991 and moved to Costa Rica. Known for driving his 1957 Rolls Royce around the world in 2007 and the length of the Americas in 2009-11. He’s driven it through 49 countries plus all the Canadian provinces and continental US states.
3. NM Members, UN Verified.
#586 Eric Abtan 1973. Finished age 43 in 2016 (Nauru). Link to Hebrew news site with video about Mark Zulu who travels to disaster or edge tourism.
4, 5. NM Members, not verified
#543 Michael Graziano 1989. Finished at age 30 in 2020 (Angola). Many links:
https://www.globaldegree.co/ – travel while getting a university degree online. From Vancouver. Forbes article “Youngest Canadian to see every country in the world” and several links to an American traveler Sam Goodwin (I don’t understand).
Note that when Mr Graziano first registered on NM in 2020, he zoomed past all other Canadians to the #1 spot and 850 regions. NM added 20 regions to bring the total to 1301 and Stuart Sheppard (the previous #1), jumped past MG with 851 regions. Subsequently, MG lost 400 regions to drop to #543 on the NM masterlist.
#1332 Horace Tong.
6. Travellers with a Personal Website
Mike Spenser Bown 1966. Finished at age 47 in 2013 (Ireland). Links to his personal web site https://www.mikespencerbown.com and his book are the only available record. See MSB
Bown has written a book about his travels, “The World’s Most Travelled Man: A Twenty-Three-Year Odyssey to and through Every Country on the Planet” published by Douglas & McIntyre in October 2018.
YouTube video with a Huffington Post bit. One of the comments following from 2014 was: “I heard the whooole story and that guy is really but really selfish. He left his young daughter and wife in Calgary for 23 years, never saw his daughter grow up, and then comes back to Calgary as if it was nothing. Sorry but if you go on a 23-year-old trip, don’t make a baby just before you go!”
In 2020, he was in The Best Traveled and Nomad Mania (#129) but now is not there. I wonder why? It is most likely that NM’s rating is based on 1301 regions and Mr Bown does not have that many – #129 in August 2022 had 648 regions. It also would put him #3 in Canada with 200 regions less than #1 (Stewart Sheppard) and 143 less than #2 (me Ron Perrier). Those are hardly numbers desired by “The World’s Most Travelled Person”.
NM also has an authentication system for both countries and regions which he may not do well on depending on what proof he can produce.
Mr Bown may have spent 23 years travelling but may not have seen many sites.
I doubt that he is the “World’s Most Traveled Man”, a rather boastful assertion, and can think of many travellers who might disagree with his assertion.
5. Travellers with Media Reference (#136-178). None
6. Transited Only for Some Countries (#179-197). None
7. Deceased (#198-212). None
8. Word of Mouth / TCC / MTP. (#213-248). None
9. Very Close to Goal. (#249-281)
#252 Ian Boudreault 1982. UN 191 (only Libya remaining in 2020)
Personal web site https://www.thedigitalglobetrotter.com/. From Quebec City and traveling since 2002 working on the road.
#280 Ian Tremblay. UN 189?. No links.
10. Almost Did It. (#182-283). None