Thailand has once again been voted the ‘World’s Best Tourist Country’ in the 2010 Norwegian Grand Travel Award making this the seventh consecutive year that the Thai kingdom has won the award.

Fagbladet Travel News, a leading independent Norwegian travel trade magazine, presented its annual Grand Travel Award on 7 January 2010. The 2010 award presentation ceremony was hosted at the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel in Oslo, Norway.

His Excellency Ambassador of Thailand to Norway, Mr Jullapong Nonsrichai, together with Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand in Scandinavia, Mr. Manit Boonchim, jointly accepted the prestigious travel trade award on behalf of the Kingdom of Thailand.

The annual Grand Travel Award which was being held for the fifteenth time in 2010 featured a total of 18 award categories. Winners in each of the travel-related categories are selected by a travel trade jury comprising 400 members of the Norwegian travel industry. Thailand has won the award more than ten times.

Thai Airways International in Norway also won the 2010 Norwegian Grand Travel Award for the best intercontinental airline. 2010 is the sixth consecutive year that Thai Airways in Norway has won the award. The winners in all three airline categories were Star Alliance member carriers — THAI for best intercontinental airline, Lufthansa for best European airline and SAS for best domestic airline.

Norwegian travellers are socially and environmentally-responsible tourists and are noted for their true appreciation of the local culture and environment. They express genuine interest in the communities they visit, seek interaction with the local residents, and demonstrate care and concern for their well-being.

Thailand is extremely fortunate to have a relatively high market share of this quality outbound travel market segment. Norway continues to be a very important source market for Thailand, with a high percentage of repeat visitors. There is also a strong trend toward family travel with several generations of the family returning to Thailand on repeat visits.

In 2008, the kingdom welcomed a total of 128,380 visitors from Norway — an increase 16.62 per cent over the previous year, while the 2007 total of 110,076 represented an 8 per cent increase over the 2006 total of 101,920, or up by 20.89 per cent.

Total visitor arrivals in 2008 accounted for a total of 7.7 billion baht of tourism revenue and foreign exchange earnings to the Thai economy.

In spite of the economic slowdown, TAT Stockholm expects the current trend in visitor arrivals to Thailand for 2010 to be maintained. The year-over-year growth in tourism revenue is also expected to remain at the average of 15 per cent.

The key destination strengths that account for the steady growth of visitor arrivals from Norway are the friendliness and warm hospitality of the Thai people and value for money.

Interest in travel to Thailand is also being sustained by the consistent investment in marketing, public relations and promotional activities undertaken by TAT Stockholm on an ongoing basis in order to further increase Thailand’s share of the Norwegian outbound travel market.

Contact information
TAT Stockholm
Drottninggatan 33,
Ground Floor, 111 51 Stockholm,
Sweden
Tel: +46 (0)8 700 56 90
Fax: +46 (0)8 700 56 99
E-Mail: info@tourismthailand.se
Web site: www.tourismthailand.se