" Thailand Wins Prestigious Norwegian Grand Travel Award For "The World's Best Tourist Country 2006"

   The Norwegian travel trade has rated the Kingdom of Thailand “The World's Best Tourist Country 2006” . The third year in a row Thailand wins. The "Grand Travel Award 2006" was presented at the annual award presentation organized by "Travel News", an independent Norwegian travel trade magazine held on January 10th in Oslo

   The Grand Travel Awards was arranged for the 11'Th time and the election is made by a Norwegian travel trade jury and a random selection of 300 travel agents. The award was received by H.E. Chitriya Pinthong, ambassador to Thailand in Norway . Her excellence expressed her gratitude, and thanked for the loyalty to Thailand and its people.

   The Grand Travel Awards is a result of a survey which polled over 300 travel industry members in Norway . The awards are presented in 17 categories with the scale 1-6, where 1 is the lowest score and 6 is the highest. Thailand is also the only nation in Asia which has been nominated for the Award

   Thailand was the winner of category “the best tourist country” with the point 5.04 followed by Greece 4.46, Italia 4.53, Denmark 4.50.

                   Thailand's tourism image rebounds

  BANGKOK, Dec 26 (TNA) - Thailand southern beaches and islands, as well as Bangkok's luxury hotels, put the kingdom in a strong rebound position in the Southeast Asia's tourist market
Thailand has been voted by readers of a best-selling Australian travel magazine as one of the top world tourists destination, ranked above rival Southeast Asian countries in the highly-competitive Southeast Asian region, according to Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) deputy governor Surapol Savetseranee.
Australia's Luxury Travel & Style magazine, 'Down Under's' best-selling travel magazine, conducted a survey in September and October asking its 60,000 subscribers and readers to nominate the world's best hotels, resorts, spas, golf courses and destinations.

  Thailand placed eighth on the high-flying publication's world rankings, outperforming Indonesia (28th), Malaysia (23rd), Singapore (15th) and Vietnam (22nd) on its list of 30 countries voted as the world's best tourist destinations
Of the world's 15 best tourist destination islands, Thailand 's southern resorts of Phuket and Samui were ranked 5 th and 9th, respectively, while Malaysia 's Langkawi Island trailed at number 11 in the chart In the category of world' best city destinations, Bangkok was voted eighth, Singapore 10th and Kuala Lumpur 27th, while in the world's best hotel category, Thailand's Oriental, Peninsula and JW Marriott hotels were ranked 4th, 7th and 12th respectively on the list of 35 finalists
The survey shows that Thailand has maintained its strong position as a leading world travel destination despite a decline in large number of tourists for the entire year due to the tsunami disaster which affected Indonesia and Malaysia as well, the TAT deputy governor said
While Bangkok serves as 'gateway to Asia ' for many North American and European tourists, Singapore is the first point of entry to Asia for many Australians.
Terrorist bombings in Indonesia have affected the attitude of many Australian tourists who want to discover a more 'traditional' Asia and less shopping-oriented destination than what is on offer in Singapore , and beach resorts that are perceived as being safer than in Indonesia