William Chalmers, event director of The Global Scavenger Hunt, talks to P Gupta about testing people’s travel IQ
Travelling for most is about site seeing but for some passionate travelling maniacs it’s about “site doing.” William Chalmers, dubbed as the ‘world’s greatest traveller’, is the event director of The Global Scavenger Hunt, the around the world travel adventure competition.
William has circumnavigated the globe on 12 separate occasions and stepped foot in well-over 100 countries. He is the author of three books — A Blind Date With the World, The Origin of the Species Homo Touristicus and America’s Vacation Deficit Disorder. “As a child I collected stamps and coins, the pictures of the prince, their dance styles, animals always astounded me and this hobby made me want to see the world,” exclaimed Chalmers.
“The Scavenger Hunt is my idea of testing people’s travel IQ to understand how they deal with logistics, communication, language and cultural nuances. I prepared a list to test the contestants on how efficiently they can get from point A to point B,” explained Chalmers. About what travel IQ is, Chalmers said, “Travel IQ is how one deals with emergency situations when one is travelling. You land at a destination, you get off the plane in a foreign destination that you’ve never been to, you do not know anybody, you do not have a guide book, what do you doIJ How a person reacts in such situations is what I judge them on. I judge on the basis of how efficient they are when they are on their own in a different land.”
The Scavenger Hunt offers a blind date with the world — 10 countries, 14 teams, 23 days is what it is all about. But there’s a word of caution by Chalmers, “It is not meant for everybody. Participating in this competition is not an easy task. Very few people in this world would be willing to give up 23 days of their lives and go on a trip around the world not knowing where they are going.”
The competition takes you from one extreme to another, from one religion to another, from one culture to another, from one element of the global environment that you live in to another, to test your survival skills. Chalmers said, “Religion, culture, architecture, food, spirituality, these are all elements of this hunt. It is a game. There are winners and there are losers. And this game highlights the human instinct to win as we travel. It highlights the story of the people.”
The competition has been on for 10 years. Every year a bunch of excited and curious travellers are a part of it. The show has been over to 60 countries in 10 years. On what led Chalmers to be part of this competition, he said, “I have travelled to a lot of places. I love taking up these trips and do not mind revisiting the same place with my participants because to see a place through their eyes is like me seeing that place for the first time. I am living my life through them. The world over the last 10 years has changed. These days more people are travelling, the world is becoming smaller,” he said.