Recently we have run a poll regarding the upcoming regions change. It included 10 questions and had two dimensions – some general, and then some very specific.
What is interesting here is that the specific resulted in more homogeneity and clarity in the answers. The general ones … oh boy. The NomadMania community is seriously divided. Both by age and by number of visited regions…
Let us start with where people more or less agreed
The percentages not listed are rather high values of Don’t Know/Don’t Care responses.
70% agree that we should continue our policy of deducting 25% of the territory of countries that have more than 30% desert; only 15% disagree with this.
In terms of the possible addition of Karabakh as an extra region of Azerbaijan, 58% agree whereas only 27% disagree.
In terms of adding the Kurdish controlled region of North-East Syria as a region, a total of 55% is in favour, with only 26% against – the most popular answer here was to add this as a 4th region to Syria which was chosen by 35% of respondents.
The biggest agreement was in terms of Antarctica where a massive 82% does not want any new regions and is happy with our current division – less than 6% suggested further regions for the icy continent.
Similarly, 72% of respondents are happy with the 3 NomadMania regions in Greenland, while only 17% expressed support for the addition of more regions.
Answers were more mixed regarding Puerto Rico and the question of the two largest countries which we do not split, Eswatini and Kuwait. Regarding the former, only 7 votes separate the percentages of support for an additional region in Puerto Rico (43.9%) versus keeping it as one region (43.1%).
In terms of Eswatini and Kuwait, 44% reject a split into further regions. 36% support splitting Kuwait in total, whereas only 28% support a split of Eswatini.
Please note all these votes are consultative, however in the cases where there are convincing majorities, we are inclined to follow popular opinion unless there is very good reason not to.
The more interesting issues are the more important ones too
These relate especially to two questions, which essentially asked for the general feelings of our community about adding new regions.
In the first question “The Optimal Score for Regions has shown that some countries are seriously under-split in terms of divisions on the NomadMania Masterlist” we generally offered three possible responses.
The total results are as follows:
- 44.9% – follow optimal case by case
- 23.5% – follow optimal closely
- 23.6% – ignore optimal
As you can see, the last two options are almost tied (1 vote difference), but this is where things get more complex if we analyse by age of respondents and by number of regions visited.
Further classified in age group :
For travellers under the age of 35, 52% opt for the case-by-case option, followed by 28% who prefer us to follow the optimal closely, while only 15% want us to ignore the optimal.
However, for travellers over the age of 55, 42% opt for the case-by-case option, followed by a desire to ignore the optimal by 34% and only 15% want us to follow the optimal closely.
This pattern repeats itself if we look at the data based on how many regions respondents have been to. For travellers with less than 150 NomadMania regions, 46% want us to follow the case-by-case option, 31% want us to follow the optimal closely while only 15% reject the optimal.
However, for the other extreme, for travellers with more than 600 regions, 56% want us to entirely ignore the optimal (i.e. not add any regions), and less than 10% want us to follow the optimal closely.
Despite a much smaller sample size (66 respondents with over 600 regions total), we can most certainly reach the conclusion that older and more experienced travellers are much more likely to ignore the idea of adding more regions compared to younger ones who give the optimal 80% support in total, either case-by-case or following it diligently. These numbers explode even more when analysed by number of regions visited, where support for the project of adding regions seems to collapse completely for those at the top of the rankings.
The statistical variance is repeated for the questions regarding possible additions of regions to smaller countries, though in general the conclusions are that all travellers are hesitant to follow the optimal too closely if a country is small.
The general results here were – 53% ignore the optimal, 39% follow it.
While the ignore/follow divide is almost 50-50 for travellers with less than 150 regions, in those above 600, 63% opt for ignoring the optimal.
When given more choices, respondents chose the following:
- 38% – decide on a case-by-case basis
- 20% – ignore the optimal
- 19% – follow the optimal closely
- 14% – add one region only, not exaggerating for small countries
Once again in these last results, we see a similar trend by age and number of regions. 33% of older travellers want us to ignore the optimal compared to only 10% of the younger ones under 35 (the 35-54 group is in the middle, with 22% rejecting the optimal).
And while only 10% of ‘intense’ travellers want us to follow the optimal closely, with 47% ignoring the optimal, in the less experienced travellers only 10% want to ignore the optimal.
Conclusions?
A slightly philosophical question – who does NomadMania want to serve?
Do we want to be a platform for the very ‘intense’ travellers or rather for everybody with an interest in travel beyond the obvious? Do we want to look at the older, ‘experienced’ traveller and follow their vote, or do we want to look more toward the younger, less travelled (so far)? The severe differences in the percentages observed have us wondering why – is it that the travellers who have done so much are tired and don’t want to do more? Is it that the younger ones may trust the data more perhaps because they feel they don’t have the travel experience?
We cannot interpret the results accurately nor is this our purpose – our main aim is to reach sound decisions which are both fact-based and generally serve our community – divided as it may be.
What we may well conclude is that Azerbaijan and Syria will likely be the first countries to receive an additional region once we start this process in 2026 – and this is following your vote and a clear margin of support for this overall. We can also permanently ‘freeze’ any ideas of additions to Antarctica or Greenland based on the very clear ‘no’ vote.
We can also conclude that, in general, for small countries we will take a much more cautious approach and not follow the optimal ‘blindly’ where this will lead to absurd results, while at the same time not totally ignoring it – case-by-case, vote-by-vote may be called for especially for the smaller countries – so we ask for your to enthusiastically share your opinion when we ask for it (we may limit the ‘don’t know’ options).
Somewhat encouragingly though, less than a quarter of respondents reject the optimal overall, with two-thirds broadly accepting it, and therefore this will be our main guide in terms of some of the bigger countries where additional regions are implied by the numbers.
Overall, for many of the questions, we will come back to you, the NomadMania community.
You can expect a brand-new poll from us just after New Year!
