Travelport and Adventureman set a new world record

Travelport put its product Travelport+ to the test, to see if it could produce a world-record-breaking itinerary vising the Seven Wonders of the World in less than seven days

Last week, Travelport, a global technology company that powers travel bookings for hundreds of thousands of travel suppliers worldwide, and Jamie McDonald, a British adventurer also known as “Adventureman", announced a new world record.

They had beaten the previous world record for the fastest time to visit the Seven Wonders of the World and they achieved it in less than seven days. 

Confirmed by Guinness World Records, the journey was completed in 6 days, 16 hours, and 14 minutes, using only public transportation. 

The challenge was set to McDonald by Travelport to put the company’s modern retail platform, Travelport+, to the test and prove that the company’s technology allows its partners to plan, book and manage even the world’s most complex trip. 

The trip started at the Great Wall of China, and the clock started ticking the moment he left the first wonder via toboggan. The journey saw McDonald visit India’s Taj Mahal, Jordan’s ancient city of Petra, Rome’s ancient Colosseum, Brazil’s art deco statute Christ the Redeemer and Peru’s Incan citadel Machu Picchu before he finally arrived at the seventh wonder: Chichén Itzá, a Mayan archaeological site. 

For the trip to be endorsed by Guinness World Records, McDonald had to abide by several rules. Some of those included: only use scheduled public transportation, with licensed taxi rides unable to exceed 50 kilometres, take videos and photos showing the applicant, the location and the date at each site visited, and to understand that the ‘clock’ starts the moment the challenger leaves the first wonder site, and it does not stop for any reason until the challenger sets foot in the final site.

The trip was made possible by Travelport+, a product of Travelport which provides global travel agents with modern retail technology that allows them to compare millions of travel routes and select the best one for each individual traveller. 

Travelbag, a travel agency and partner of Travelport, booked all aspects of the trip for McDonald via Travelport+. They were able to search, filter, find, compare and build the most complex itinerary using Smartpoint Cloud. 

Throughout the trip McDonald had round-the-clock access to a dedicated Travelbag travel specialist who, on his request, tracked evolving travel restrictions, identified schedule changes, and made necessary tweaks to his itinerary in real time. 

He also was able to access Travelport’s Trip Manager feature on the go too, to add ancillaries and extras (meals, paid seats, etc.) to his itinerary.

McDonald said: “I’ve run solo across America (the equivalent of 210 marathons) and have cycled 22,000 kilometres from Thailand to the United Kingdom, and yet, this was certainly my most complex, complicated trip yet.

“With travel, there are just so many variables – weather, restrictions, delays, customs, traffic, cancellations, you name it. When you’re attempting to set a world record, speed and agility are absolutely key. There was no other partner besides Travelport that could’ve made this all possible.”

Greg Webb, CEO of Travelport, said: “When we began upgrading our agency partners to Travelport+ in 2021, it was with the intent of making the complicated travel industry easier and faster to navigate.

“This epic adventure was the ultimate test for our platform – could we take the world’s most complex trip and make it simple? Could we ensure it was easy to service? Would the platform be agile enough to accommodate whatever unforeseen bumps the trip encountered?

“Six days, sixteen hours and fourteen minutes later, we had our answer: yes, yes and yes. This trip also proves that, after a few challenging years for the industry, travel is most definitely back and better than ever.”

McDonald was born with a rare spinal condition and his main focus of the record-breaking trip was raising funds for his charity, the Superhero Foundation.

Travelport has donated $22,856, a dollar for every mile that Jamie, a Pride of Britain winner, travelled for this challenge. 

Each one of those miles travelled produced carbon emissions. These will be removed by Travelport via Climeworks, a high-quality carbon dioxide removal service.