I haven't been here for a while.
I'll give my thoughts about this.
I think there will be a new Asian country this season.
Perhaps they want to explore a different Asian culture, which would give them, as well as the viewers, a new view of Asia.
Australia might be overdue, but I think they'll skip this again. Why? I don't know, but I hope I'm wrong.
Europe gets visited almost every season, so there's no doubt Europe will be visited again. Maybe they'll visit one "over-visited" European country this season, then have an under-visited or new country afterwards.
South America may have been visited for 4 seasons, but I'm not gonna eliminate the possibility of this continent being visited again this season. The chances may be low, but maybe they'll have one to two legs here around the F5 or F4.
Africa usually gets a one-country or no-country visit regularly, so I'd say 50-50 for this one.
I think the route will go westward this time, because I don't think they'll do 4 seasons-in-a-row of eastward routes. With that, I think they can either start with Central America or Oceania and have 2 legs there, followed by Asia on Leg 3 all the way to Leg 6 or 7. They'll most likely move to Europe next. If Africa gets a visit, the 2 legs there would be sandwiched by European legs. If South America gets a visit, it would most likely be the penultimate leg and the leg before it.
L.A. is definitely gonna be visited.
That would either be the starting line or the finish line.