The Travelers' Century Club, or TCC, is a club for people who have visited 100 or more countries.
The organization was founded in California in the fifties and now has almost 2,000 members throughout the United States and the world. The club has 12 regional chapters in the U.S. and one in London, and holds regular meetings and arranges tours to remote destinations.
The TCC has a fairly loose definition of what constitutes a country and has established its own list of currently 321 "countries". This includes not only sovereign states but also certain territories, exclaves and island groups. The club argues that "although some are not actually countries in their own right, they have been included because they are removed from parent, either geographically, politically or ethnologically" [1], based on rules established in 1970.[2] The list is very roughly based on the amateur radio DXCC award criteria for working 100 "entities".
Anyone who has visited 100 or more of the places on the list is eligible to join. The club has no requirements as to how long the traveller must have stayed in a country to qualify; even a port-of-call or a plane fuel stop suffices.
The club charges a US$100 joining fee and annual fees of US$50 for US residents, or US$60 for residents elsewhere[3].
Contents |
Some argue that the club is little more than an exclusive group of mainly wealthy Americans who enjoy showing off their extensive travels and lavish lifestyle.[5]
In 2004, club member Charles Veley was featured in the International Herald Tribune[6] and the UK's Daily Telegraph[7] as the new holder of a Guinness world record, but this was never reflected in the Guinness Book of World Records[8], thereby undermining the claim. Some world travellers dispute Veley's claims or their significance.[9]