Hello Everyone,
Welcome to Day 2 of our 2021 new MTP location reveal. Yesterday, we added the 10 regions of DRC to our MTP Master List. For those of you new to MTP, we adjust our list of locations every year, and try to spread out our annual unveilings over several days - kind of like a travel Hannukah, where one beautiful gift after another is revealed :)
Next up on our new locations for 2021 is Saudi Arabia. As discussed in last year's updates, we had already divided the 10 largest countries in the world by area, and now the DRC makes 11, and we will continue to add locations along those lines. Saudi Arabia is the 12th largest country in the world, and we've divided it into 9 regions. Those regions are:
- Asir, Al Baha
- Al Jawf, Northern Borders
- Al Qasim, Ha'il
- Eastern Province
- Jizan, Nazran
- Medina Province
- Mekka Province
- Riyadh
- Tabuk Province
Note that, if you have visited already Saudi Arabia, that count will disappear. You will have to go in and select the specific region(s) you have visited. Your MTP Location and UN Country counts will appear reduced by 1 until you do this.
If you are an iPhone/iPad app user, you must be on the latest version of the app to see these changes (You can check your version by going to My Profile > Gear Icon > About The App). If you are on the latest version, and still experiencing issues, you can reinstall the app, or simply view all the latest changes on your browser.
If you are an Android app user, and don't see these changes, simply reboot your phone to clear the cache.
Before the last couple of years, most people could have been forgiven for thinking of Saudi Arabia as a useless destination touristically - a vast desert wasteland of restrictive social policies, where tourist visas were impossible to obtain. But all of that has changed in the last couple of years, as the Saudi Government has opened up, offering tourist eVisas available online in 5 minutes. New package tours have revealed a country of stunning beauty, filled with rugged mountain treks, sweeping vistas, hidden waterfalls, and historical forts.
Although Saudi Arabia offically contains 13 Provinces, we've decided to match Nomadmania's division of the country into 10 regions. MTP was started by reconciling existing lists like TCC, Guinness and DXCC, and there's no need to make travel accounting more complicated than it already is!
Thanks as always for your support. I'll be back tomorrow with our next installation of new MTP locations.
Charles Veley | Founder & CEO