Travel + Leisure, the world's leading travel magazine, has organized its annual World’s Best Awards Readers’ Survey, for the thirteenth consecutive year. Readers were asked to help define excellence in travel by rating airlines, hotels, travel destinations and more.

In the publication's 2008 readers’ survey, Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, is named ‘World’s Best City 2008’. The city of Bangkok also leads the Top 10 cities in Asia. The northern city of Chiang Mai ranks third in Asia.

The tropical island paradise of Phuket — ‘Pearl of the Andaman’ ranks second among the Asia’s Top 3 islands for a consecutive year.

Thai Airways International, the national carrier, is third among the Top 10 international airlines.

Three hotel/resort properties in Thailand are represented in the Top 20 of the 2008 Travel + Leisure World’s Best Hotels category featuring the Top 100. These are The Oriental Bangkok, The Peninsula, Bangkok and the Four Seasons Resort in Chiang Mai.

The Four Seasons Resort in Chiang Mai also ranks second among the world’s Top 20 hotel spas and is also named the Travel + Leisure 2008 ‘World’s Best Hotel Spa’ for the Asia Pacific, Africa and Middle East. The resort also ranks among the Top 15 in the ‘Top Small Hotels’ category.

Eight of the Top 50 hotel and resort properties in Asia in the Travel + Leisure 2008 World’s Best Hotels category are in Thailand.

Survey Methodology
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Summary
13th ANNUAL TRAVEL + LEISURE WORLD’S BEST AWARDS READER’S SURVEY RESULTS FOR THAILAND

	#14 The Oriental Bangkok, Thailand
	#17 The Peninsula, Bangkok, Thailand
	#19 Four Seasons Resort, Chiang Mai, Thailand

TRAVEL + LEISURE 2008 WORLD’S BEST HOTEL SPAS BY REGION
TOP HOTEL SPA – ASIA-PACIFIC/AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST
Top Hotel Spas by Region – Asia
Four Seasons Resort, Chiang Mai, Thailand

The complete 2008 results, including the Top 100 Hotels Worldwide, Top 100 Hotels in the Continental U.S. + Canada, and Top 10 Cities in the World, are featured on www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest and in Travel + Leisure’s August issue, available on newsstands July 22.

The Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards winners for 2008 will be honoured in New York City on July 24 at an awards luncheon at the Four Seasons Restaurant, followed by a gala event at Hudson Terrace that evening.

Travel + Leisure Press Release
http://www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest/2008/press.cfm

Interactive lists of all the 2008 World’s Best Awards winners and a slide show of the Top 10 World’s Best Hotels are available at www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest, along with contact information for winning hotels. Users can also find past Travel + Leisure magazine articles on World’s Best Award-winning hotels and resorts on the site.

WBA 2008 SURVEY METHODOLOGY
How Travel + Leisure Conducts the World’s Best Awards
A questionnaire developed by the editors of Travel + Leisure, in association with Harris Interactive, was made available to Travel + Leisure subscribers at tlworldsbest.com from January 16, 2008, to March 22, 2008. In the February and March 2008 issues of Travel + Leisure, subscribers were invited to participate. A select group of subscribers also received an invitation via e-mail. Travel + Leisure subscribers were asked to enter their complete name (as it appears on their mailing label), as well as their five-digit ZIP code, at tlworldsbest.com before completing the survey. Only those responses from subscribers whose personal information entered at tlworldsbest.com exactly matched Travel + Leisure’s subscriber file were counted in the final tally. Respondents were permitted to complete the survey only once. To protect the integrity of the data, after March 22, 2008, respondents were screened by Travel + Leisure and responses from any identified travel-industry professionals who completed the survey were eliminated from the final tally. The survey website, tlworldsbest.com, was maintained, monitored, and kept secure by Harris Interactive, which collected and tabulated the responses and kept them confidential.

The scores are indexed averages of responses concerning applicable characteristics. Respondents were required to rate hotels, islands, airlines, destination spas, and rental-car agencies on five characteristics; cities, cruise lines, and tour operators and safari outfitters on six characteristics; and hotel spas on four characteristics.

	For hotels: rooms/facilities, location, service, restaurants/food, value Optional: for business, for families
	For destination spas: accommodations/ambience, treatments, service, food, value
	For hotel spas: ambience, treatments, service, value
	For cities: sights, culture/arts, restaurants/food, people, shopping, value
	For islands: natural attractions, activities/sights, restaurants/food, people, value
	For cruise lines: cabins, food, service, itineraries/destinations, activities, value
	For tour operators and safari outfitters: staff/guides, itineraries/destinations, activities, accommodations, food, value
	For airlines: cabin comfort, food, in-flight service, customer service, value
	For rental-car agencies: vehicle selection, vehicle availability, car rental location, service, value

In the "hotel" category, respondents could also rate properties on additional optional characteristics; these ratings were not included in final scores. For each characteristic, respondents were asked to rate a candidate on a scale of 1 to 5, where "5" means excellent and "1" means poor.

Required ratings were then averaged, creating an overall score. A minimum number of responses was necessary for a candidate to be eligible for inclusion in the World’s Best Awards listings. Some companies were rated in both the "cruise lines" and "tour operators and safari outfitters" categories, and some properties were rated in both the "destination spas" and "hotel spas" categories. In both cases, companies and properties have different scores for each category.

Source: http://www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest/2008/methodology.cfm
The complete survey methodology is available in the August issue of Travel + Leisure, and online at www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest.

Contact information:
Travel + Leisure magazine editors are available for interviews.
Please contact Liz Marsh at 212-382-5684
E-mail: elizabeth.c.marsh@aexp.com

or Jill S. Davison at 212-382-5679
E-mail: jill.s.davison@aexp.com

More About Travel + Leisure
The premier chronicler of the way we travel now, Travel + Leisure examines the places, the ideas, and the trends that define modern global culture. The magazine and its website, www.travelandleisure.com, inspire millions of people to explore the world, equipping them with reliable advice and a clearer understanding of how travel can change their lives. Travel + Leisure has a network of international editions, including Travel + Leisure Mexico, Travel + Leisure Australia, Travel + Leisure Turkey, Travel + Leisure China, Travel + Leisure South Asia, and Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia.

Source:Travel + Leisure press release dated 10 July 2008