"How many countries have you visited?" is a question I am asked often. Whether it arises in the spirit of fascination or competition, my answer is always the same: I do not know how many countries I have been to, and I hope I never feel tempted to count.
Travel requires a great deal of patience, understanding, and improvisation, and I will always admire those who have traveled extensively. I do see value in displaying the diverse regions in which one has traveled, especially for those working in fields like education, immigration, or tourism itself. It would be hypocritical for me to say otherwise, for even I have a map of my travels on my website.
However, my map is different from most others: I have pins rather than countries, no international borders, and in the case of large countries (Canada, China, Mexico, the USA, etc) I chose to display pins by state or province rather than the country. Most importantly, I have made it my mission to never count those pins.
The reasons for this may be small, but they are important to me.
I have often encountered travelers who make it their mission to "check off" a country - even if they are there for a single hour, even if they do not step foot outside the airport. It is none of my business how others wish to document where they have or have not been, but it affects the industry at large when people are more motivated by checking boxes than truly experiencing a place. If someone wishes to claim that they've seen every country in the world, then even the less-visited countries should benefit from these individuals staying in their hotels, eating at their restaurants, and learning something about the location beyond its airport.
Counting countries also dismisses the reality that countries themselves are not monocultural. While many criticize Americans for having "never left their own country," this fails to acknowledge the fact that states in the USA often surpass the size of entire countries in a region like Europe. Even beyond the unwarranted criticism, this same contorted logic causes some people to avoid visiting the same country again, even when they have seen a mere fraction of it. This "once and done" attitude neglects diversity within a country, whether missing the Grand Canyon by only visiting New York, or the Québécois culture by only visiting Vancouver.
Furthermore, geopolitics complicates borders even further, for specifics I need not get into. Separatist movements, occupations, and wars should remind us that where one country ends and another begins is often not as clear as our scratch-off maps would lead us to believe.
Most concerning, the comparative act of country counting ignores global inequalities. Passport and currency privileges are real, and a quick hop across the border to add a new country to one's map has a completely different connotation when applying for a visa is involved. While traveling anywhere at all is often tied to privilege, crossing borders is the ultimate manifestation of such privileges. This is especially problematic when country counts are used as an evaluation of credibility, which I have seen in both job applications and general questionnaires.
Whether for professional or personal reasons, I assume that efforts to deduct the fullness of travel to a quantifiable number are merely attempts to compare one's experience to another, no different from a standardized test score. However, for all the reasons listed above, it's not that simple. While I am not out to judge those who find joy in scratch-off maps and collecting flags, I do hope that we continue to recognize the complicated and nuanced reality that country counting brings. As for me, I make the conscious choice not to count.