Author Topic: Run out of countries?  (Read 21777 times)

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Offline G.B.

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Run out of countries?
« on: May 05, 2014, 01:29:09 PM »
Has the race finally run out of countries to visit for good?

TAR (The American version) has not visited a new country since Paraguay and Azerbaijan in Season 20 (unless you count French Polynesia, which is a part of France). Since then we've had nothing but repeats.

Overall, TAR as a franchise has not visited a new country since TAR Australia 2 visited Cuba (unless you count Curacao, which is a part of the Netherlands)

Do you think there are any further countries they could believably go to? Unlike the wishlist thread, here I'm more talking about logistics and what countries production would physically be able to go to safely and without issue.
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Offline Hysha

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2014, 02:08:54 PM »
Sure.
Andorra. They can do an all leg in Andorra, or for example: Spain - Andorra - France, because is a little country.
Laos. Is so beautiful. They can replace some Thailand legs for Laos. xD
I'm thinking about Latvia, Belarus, Moldova... but with the Ukraine-Russia problem... Maybe it's not the safest place.
I'm sure some African countries can being a cool destination. The same with "Oceanic islands" (Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea...)
And finally, Honduras, Nicaragua... they are nice places to go.
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Offline kiki

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2014, 02:44:01 PM »
Slovakia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Israel, Jordan. Even if the last four are on some forbidden list or nor the rest are pretty safe even by American standards.

Offline Zack.

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2014, 03:14:50 PM »
wrt Israel, I think any version that attempted to go there would have to build their route about it (TARI is obvious, TARAus had several legs in SE / South Central Asia and in central Europe).

I think Caribbean legs might be the next frontier; it wouldn't be difficult to have a flight from the overseeing country to the island (so Netherlands to Curacao, France to Martinique, etc) and I think they're reasonably connected to the US so as to be the penultimate leg but the issue then becomes what could they do? Curacao would be a good country though if TARLA is any indication I'm very much concerned about the execution.

I think Angola is a little lacking in internal infrastructure, but I think it's well enough connected (to Europe, within Africa and even to SA through Brazil) and has enough to do to warrant a leg or two.

Offline theschnauzers

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2014, 03:36:30 PM »
Myanmar is also a possibility.

The problem seems to be two-fold, maybe three fold. Some nations remain on the State Department Travel Advisory list, including some places TAR US has visited in the past such as Libya and Ukraine, for example. Other possible countries have become safer, but there may be concerns about being able to produce a leg ar two in those countries.

The second problem is have local production staffing available, TAR has not been to much of Africa since the death of a local producer who was based in South Africa and was in Kenya making production arrangements for another show a couple of years ago. That may be one reason why central and southern Africa have not been utilized in recent seasons.

The third reason may be that TAR US has become reliant on national tourism ministries and agencies to help arrange locations and tasks in order to facilitate being able to film in those countries.

One has to remember that all of the contestants and many of the traveling production team travel on US passports, and have to meet any local visa and other requirements imposed on US originating travelers. There are countries that impose more rigid requirements on US passport holders because of the post 9/11 security measure imposed by the US on nationals of certain other countries.

The other thing is that even when an area had settled down, the producers tend to wair a couple of years before considering those countries for future races. (Sri Lanka and its civil war only ended a couple of years ago, for instance.) And then, there's now the Sharia problem in some Islamic majority countries, and the anti0GBLT legislation in Russia and some African nations. The rigidity of these new laws also may make it difficult for TAR to plan to go to those places for the foreseeable future.
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Offline Air

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2014, 04:37:47 PM »
I don't think you meant Libya, maybe Egypt?

Offline RachelLeVega

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2014, 06:23:15 PM »
TAR needs to visit the former Yugoslavia again, but with more creative tasks rather than traditional dances/stereotypical thoughts. Last night's episode in Seville ruined mainland Spain for me. :res:

I'd also suggest to TAR to design out-of-this-world routes for Central America, a relatively safe "-stan" country (like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan), and the Caribbeans since those are the most underrated regions TAR has barely scratched surface on.

For now, if these route creators want to keep on making generic tasks, just stick to revisiting past countries. I don't want them to ruin a visit to a new country. For example, the one of Azerbaijan in TAR20 minus the FF drama.
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Offline Air

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2014, 06:31:15 PM »
None of the Central Asian countries are 'relatively safe', most are controlled by dictators etc, and I believe there are travel restrictions there.

Offline theschnauzers

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2014, 06:54:55 PM »
TAR needs to visit the former Yugoslavia again, but with more creative tasks rather than traditional dances/stereotypical thoughts. Last night's episode in Seville ruined mainland Spain for me. :res:

I'd also suggest to TAR to design out-of-this-world routes for Central America, a relatively safe "-stan" country (like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan), and the Caribbeans since those are the most underrated regions TAR has barely scratched surface on.

For now, if these route creators want to keep on making generic tasks, just stick to revisiting past countries. I don't want them to ruin a visit to a new country. For example, the one of Azerbaijan in TAR20 minus the FF drama.

Actually Tunisia.  But they are only getting around to their first "regular" post=Ghaddafi era elections now, so they're not settled down yet.
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Offline Air

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2014, 07:22:00 PM »
Actually Tunisia.  But they are only getting around to their first "regular" post=Ghaddafi era elections now, so they're not settled down yet.

Oh true, I forgot their visit :lol:


Offline Loken

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2014, 11:09:41 PM »
Nepal!!!!!!
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Offline SamualDude

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #11 on: May 05, 2014, 11:30:21 PM »
Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Luxeumbourg, Gibraltar, Latvia. Those are some of the countries I'd like to see.
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Offline Jobby

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #12 on: May 06, 2014, 12:21:54 AM »
As long as they visit new places or new things to do. For example, they have been to Amsterdam at least 5 to 6 times but never once visited the Tulip Fields, the night activities areas OR even visited the outskirt cities much. -_-

Offline SamualDude

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #13 on: May 06, 2014, 12:23:43 AM »
As long as they visit new places or new things to do. For example, they have been to Amsterdam at least 5 to 6 times but never once visited the Tulip Fields, the night activities areas OR even visited the outskirt cities much. -_-

Yeah I mean they haven't been to Wellington in NZ, Haven't been to Stewart Island, the Milford sound and surprisingly they haven't been to Hobbiton.
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Offline G.B.

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #14 on: May 06, 2014, 05:59:28 AM »
In a lot of ways, my mind is based on numbers and patterns. And so, even if a race visits a whole slew of new cities and regions, a part of me feels disappointed if there's not at least one new country.

I LOVED TAR21's route. It was great to see more of Dhaka, I really really loved seeing Majorca, and the back-country of France was great to see. But on some level it's always disappointed me because it was the first American TAR season to not visit a single new country.
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Offline theamazingracer21

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #15 on: May 06, 2014, 07:52:54 AM »
I agree with Jobby and SamaulDude. It isn't a matter of new countries but a matter of new locations.

Offline claude_24hrs

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #16 on: May 06, 2014, 09:24:34 AM »
Loved it. Sri Lanka revisited this season after a long civil war ended a couple of years ago, Indonesia finally visited in TAR19 after a travel warning-free zone due to major terrorist attacks in the 2000s.

In a surprise, Paris never have had a full leg in American TAR, but it was seen wholly in TAR Israel 3.

Offline Jobby

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #17 on: May 06, 2014, 11:52:18 AM »
Indeed! Paris!

Offline TARFansurvivor

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #18 on: May 06, 2014, 12:05:48 PM »
Sure.
Andorra. They can do an all leg in Andorra, or for example: Spain - Andorra - France, because is a little country.
Laos. Is so beautiful. They can replace some Thailand legs for Laos. xD
I'm thinking about Latvia, Belarus, Moldova... but with the Ukraine-Russia problem... Maybe it's not the safest place.
I'm sure some African countries can being a cool destination. The same with "Oceanic islands" (Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea...)
And finally, Honduras, Nicaragua... they are nice places to go.

I agree there are so many Countries left, they can go to!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Offline Jobby

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #19 on: May 06, 2014, 12:06:44 PM »
They can just do a race alone on all the Survivor places they went to and not visited for TAR.. #justsaying


Offline RachelLeVega

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #20 on: May 06, 2014, 11:38:51 PM »
They can just do a race alone on all the Survivor places they went to and not visited for TAR.. #justsaying
Two problems, some of the countries have already been visited by TAR like Brazil, Kenya, China, Philippines, Australia, and just this season Malaysian Borneo. Plus, there will be too many limited flights in and out of a country that TAR will just constantly provide plane tickets to teams like what they did for TAR17's flight out of Accra to Kiruna, Sweden.
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Offline Jobby

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #21 on: May 07, 2014, 11:27:15 PM »
Not to be rude but when I talk about TAR US... can people stop bringing in other seasons for discussion? :funny:

Providing plane tickets is perfectly fine for me, as long as you give me a new remote location with zomgamazing tasks and views like Survivor did!

Offline G.B.

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #22 on: May 08, 2014, 02:23:18 PM »
Perhaps TAR US should adopt the practice used in TAR Latin America? But only partially?

If, and ONLY if, there is a situation where everyone must be given tickets on the same flight, then treat it like a Pit Stop and have everyone write down their arrival times, to be released from the destination's airport in the same order.
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Offline Vitoko

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #23 on: May 08, 2014, 03:27:15 PM »
Perhaps TAR US should adopt the practice used in TAR Latin America? But only partially?

If, and ONLY if, there is a situation where everyone must be given tickets on the same flight, then treat it like a Pit Stop and have everyone write down their arrival times, to be released from the destination's airport in the same order.

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No matter how difficult it is to get somewhere, that stupid sign up board is one of the worst things that TARLA has done. If everyone is on the same flight, guess what, is fair game now, you are first and last at the same time, GAME ON...

Offline Alenaveda

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Re: Run out of countries?
« Reply #24 on: May 08, 2014, 04:05:44 PM »
THIS ^^^

(Personally, if I had the chance I'd burn that board.)
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