The 5th NomadMania Travel Awards were held on November 17, 2024 at the Ambassador Hotel in Bangkok as the culmination of the Extraordinary Travel Festival that attracted a record amount of 250 travellers from around the globe for the 3-day event. As part of the organisation of the ETF, we were invited by Ric Gazarian to partner and hold our Awards. Of course, we were happy to do so, especially as this implied a chance to have more travellers present at the awards live.
Since the latter attracted over 250 big travellers from all over the world and we promoted Awards 2024 as part of the ETF this proved to be a good working model. We believe at least a half of ETF participants are active NomadMania members.
So, let’s have a brief review on what happened in Bangkok in mid November 2024.
Extraordinary Travel Festival
ETF is a major event known among big world travellers. In order not to repeat the words of others we highly recommend you read an amazing ETF review by the one and only His Majesty the Sultan of Slowjamastan.
Special thanks to Ric Gazarian for putting on such an amazing travel event. Don’t miss it next time.
NomadMania at ETF
The ETF attracted a large amount of NomadMania members. Our team developed a welcoming stand which was frequently the centre of attention and included some of the merch we plan on offering in our on-line shop, such as certificates, trophies, tote bags, travel towels etc.
NomadMania partners: Orest Zub, Harry Mitsidis, Daniel Zagrodzki
Check out our online shop here.
We also had copies of the two books of our Founder Harry Mitsidis, ‘Welcome to the Hotel NomadMania‘ and ‘The Curious Case of William Baekeland‘, both of which proved very popular with the crowd.
We were helped by having our dear friend Fadi Assi, winner of the 2023 Best Fixer Award, right next to us, giving the crowd Syrian sweets.
We distributed some tailor-made T-shirts with an individualized map to our core team; these will soon be available for you to get as well: your completed ‘orange’ coloured regions feature prominently.
A large number of Committee Members were present, including Committee Chair Mette Ehlers Mikkelsen and members Dondon Bales, Lucy Hsu, Kostiantyn Liorek, Cameron Mofid, Khadija Musa and Slawek Muturi.
Envoys and Messengers such as Michael and Angela Ballards, Boris Kester, Petro Marais, Yan Pun, Henry Tengelsen and newly added Envoy Wee Cheng Tan from Singapore were also present, as were verification committee members Jacqueline Kunz and Erik Futtrup.
And obviously there were countless NomadMania travellers as well, a unique chance to interact and get to know the team and each other and give us ideas for future directions for NomadMania.
Our Speeches
Our Founder Harry Mitsidis and our Managing Partner Orest Zub both gave speeches that were particularly well received and even described as ‘outstanding’ by some.
Harry Mitsidis spoke on ‘Dark Travel and the Ethical Responsibilities of Travellers.’ His speech centered on whether travellers in our community have an ethical obligation to go to some dark travel sites such as those on Bunce Island, Jasenovac, Beslan and Banda Aceh. On the other hand, the question was raised whether travellers have an ethical obligation to not go to some countries that could be considered dark currently due to their disregard for basic human rights.
In what was an interactive presentation, the crowd in the auditorium voted through their phones in real time, and the next day the results were given. Generally, the present crowd agreed by two-thirds that travellers should visit certain dark sites with historical value. The results regarding countries varied, with the majority clearly stating they would visit Syria, Iran or Venezuela currently and even Afghanistan or Myanmar; the only countries where a majority stated they would not go based on the current situation were Israel and Russia, though in both cases the result was close to 50-50.
Our Managing Partner Orest Zub gave a presentation ‘Nomadmania to the EXTREME’ was focused on NomadMania itself, using personal examples of his recent travels and how he has used our NomadMania tools to assist his travel planning.
During the presentation, our new location sharing feature ‘Nomads Near Me & Around The World‘ was introduced and once again, this became an interactive event, where the audience were encouraged to take their phones and see for themselves how they can use our new features. Needless to say, the speech was a raving success, with many praising the design and also stating that this feature is truly a game changer.
So, don’t forget to experiment for yourself and see which NomadManian is closest to you! See a brief use manual here. We are also going to publish video recordings of both presentations in the nearest time.
NomadMania Travel Awards 2024
This year, we gave out 13 awards, of which 8 were voted on by our community and 5 were decided internally by the NomadMania Team. The event itself was star-studded, with a number of past winners such as the legendary Luisa Yu and Thor Pedersen taking to the stage during the varied show.
Hosts Lucy Hsu and Dondon Bales did an exemplary job at a professional presentation and connected to the enthusiastic international guests, some entering the show from countries as diverse as Greenland, Liberia and Timor-Leste.
The 5 awards chosen by the team are:
- Against All Odds: Saidi Mnyomoka from Tanzania
- Best NomadMania Team Member: Yaroslav Ingulsky from Ukraine
- Best NomadMania Friend: Yui Pow Redford from Singapore
- Best Envoy: Sevcan Akesi from Turkiye and Nitin Tyagi from India
- Lifetime Achievement in Travel: Don Parrish from the United States
This year, we have decided to reveal the top 3 ranked in the voting by the community.
We received a record number of votes this year, 70% more than last year, truly exceeding all expectations and proving that this event is truly significant for the community. Based on your voting, the results were as follows:
Best Digital Travel Creator
| OMAR NOK | 28.3% |
| Palle Bo | 23.8% |
| Chloe Jade Meltzer | 17% |
Best Digital Creator – Country Specific
| QUPANUK OLSEN | 48.7% |
| Zoe Stephens | 22.3% |
| Harutyun Hakobian | 12.6% |
Best Travel Book
| LILY WEST | 28.8% |
| Carla Mota and Rui Pinto | 23.8% |
| Flavio Ferrari Zumbini | 19.7% |
Most Trusted Local Fixer
| AMADOU CISSE | 31.2% |
| Murad Ovlyakuliyev | 21.4% |
| Ahmed Wahab | 20.5% |
Most Intrepid Traveller
| LAKSHMI PARTHASARATHY | 33.8% |
| Nicolai Bangsgaard | 21% |
| Andreas Aschaber | 15.3% |
Most Purposeful Traveller
| RASHA YOUSIF | 47.1% |
| Andrew MacLeod | 26% |
| Christian Clauwers | 14.2% |
Biggest LPI Traveller
| WASSIM ALLACHE | 39.3% |
| Kazi Azmery | 35.2% |
| Peak Praisont | 16.6% |
Biggest Traveller 2024
| RUS MARGOLIN & NATALIA VELYCHKO | 36.6% |
| Daniel Pinto | 23.1% |
| Maryam Abdullah | 16.8% |
It was great to have Philippines-based Jamela Santos and Bangladeshi traveller Raiiq Ridwan on stage to discuss the difficulties of travelling with an LPI passport.
During the show we conducted a NomadMania poll with a prize of an air-ticket worth 900 USD. Congrats to the winner Marcelo Orchis from Brazil living in Switzerland.
It was also educational to hear Jacqueline Kunz, who spoke despite having lost her voice, about the situation in Sudan with a view of reminding people that this conflict is ongoing and should not be ignored.
Legendary Don Parrish connected to receive his award and reminisce on some of his early travel memories and our journey back in time was further enhanced by Lily West, whose winning book ‘West Goes East’ is based on her adventures on the way to India in 1972.
You can watch the entire stream recording of this Awards Show on our youtube channel here.
Overall, this a memorable community event and we are indebted to Ric Gazarian and Extraordinary Travel Festival for making us a core part of it all. Our next major community event will be our Conference in Fergana, Uzbekistan this May.
Welcome to join us 🙂
