World record holder in love with Fiji

James Asquith, 30, the youngest person to travel to every country in the world, says he’s already in love with Fiji.

He is the official Guinness World record holder.

“I visited every country in the world before the age of 25,” Mr Asquith said.

Since travelling to every country in the world, the London resident founded Holiday Swap App, which allowed people to swap or host their home or even a room in 185 countries around the world for just US$1 per night.

“I am regularly asked by people how I was able to afford to travel to every country in the world.  The simple answer is a lot of hard work,” he said.

“My parents didn’t have much money and I certainly don’t come from privilege, so I had to work very hard for everything, and I still do today, perhaps more than ever.

“From a young age I almost became obsessed with money because I saw my parents didn’t have a lot of it.

“Washing cars on the street from the age of 12 quickly grew to three part time jobs at 15, and by the time I went to university at 18 I ran an events business.

“I was very frugal with my money and was intending to save up to buy a house. I studied economics and during the financial crisis invested most of my savings into bank stocks (when I had almost no idea what I was doing), but within two weeks, the major banks had rebounded off the lows and I almost tripled my money.

“Now this was not only lucky, but it isn’t sustainable (or the way to suggest people save money to travel), but when I did take my first trip to Vietnam to volunteer building homes in the Mekong Delta during my first summer of University, the whole idea of buying a house went down the drain and I caught the travel bug.”

Mr Asquith is expected to visit Fiji again for the 10th time. He looks forward to being able to work remotely from the beach.

“The friendly nature of the people of Fiji is always something I look forward to when I return to the islands. I’m starting to spend longer in the places I really like now, so despite having been to Fiji a lot I have never been for several weeks which I will be on this occasion,” he said.

“I really want to immerse myself in the local culture, people and food there, as well as spread the word about Holiday Swap.

“It is growing into one of the larger travel communities around the world it is not just about showing Fiji to the world, but showing the world to Fiji.

“Who knew that your house as a Fijian could be your ticket to travel and see the whole world, while taking out the biggest expense in travel.

“I want to really inspire travel as we do at Holiday Swap through giveaways and giving back.  We’re always holding amazing giveaways on our Instagram account @holswap so check it out.”

Advice to wanderlusters:

“Absolutely for it! I learnt so much about myself when I travelled.

“ I grew up as a person as I understood myself and the world more,” Mr Asquith said.

“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t appreciate the gift of travel at all ages, but we never know how long we have in the world, so take the chance when you can.

“Why wait, and risk not doing what you may have always wanted to do and see.

“Work hard and enjoy as much as you can. Travel was the best education I feel I ever had.

“As I travelled more, I respected and appreciate how we are so different, yet similar, from cultures to religion.

“I was fairly naive when I started my journey around the world, but I not only learned a lot about myself, but about the world around me that we live in. I feel like I’m learning and growing every day and my greatest life lesson was definitely from travelling.”

Edited by Epineri Vula

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