Gunnar Garfors

Gunnar Garfors (born 29 May 1975) is a Norwegian traveller, author, media professional and public speaker. Garfors was the first person to visit every country in the world twice, he holds a range of travel world records and has written several travel books.[1] The Norwegian has worked with broadcasting and new media developments since 2001 and has spoken on these topics at seminars and conferences in over 20 countries around the world.[2] He strongly advocates for the necessity of broadcasting as a distribution technology, in parallel to the Internet.[3]

Gunnar Garfors
Born (1975-05-29) 29 May 1975
Hammerfest, Norway
OccupationTraveller, author, media advisor
LanguageNorwegian, English
NationalityNorwegian
EducationBachelor of Arts,
Master of Management
Website
garfors.com

Early life

Garfors is the oldest of seven children. He was born in Hammerfest in Northern Norway but soon moved to Naustdal on the country's west coast where he grew up with his mother Ruth Berit Stensletten Garfors, his father Reidar Magne Garfors and his six siblings. He has also lived in Havøysund, Førde, Dublin, Falmouth, Copenhagen and Taipei. He now lives in Oslo.[4]

Garfors holds a bachelor's degree (hons) from Falmouth College of Arts in Great Britain and a Master of Management degree from Norwegian School of Management.[4]

Travels

Garfors has visited every country in the world [5][2] and is the youngest hobby traveller to have done so.[6] On 18 June 2012 he set a Guinness world record together with Adrian Butterworth from Britain by being the first to visit five continents in the same day.[7][8] Garfors beat another Guinness world record on February 2, 2018 when he circumnavigated the world via the six inhabited continents on scheduled aircraft in 56 hours and 56 minutes together with Dutchmen Erik de Zwart and Ronald Haanstra.[9] He holds several other travel related world records, including one set in September 2014 with friends Øystein Djupvik and Tay-young Pak when they visited 19 countries in 24 hours.[10][1] Garfors also writes garfors.com, a blog on travel.[4]

Writings

Garfors' first book "198 - Mi reise til alle verdas land" ("198 – My Journey to Every Country in the World") was published by Norwegian publisher Samlaget in September 2014 and later self-published in English as "198: How I Ran Out of Countries" in 2015. An essay of his was also included in the collection "Ete fysst" ("Eat first") in 2014. His second book "Ingenstad" ("Elsewhere") came out in 2019. It goes in depth about the world's 20 least-visited countries, and is the first literary work to collect tourist figures to all 198 countries. The rights to "Ingenstad" has since been sold to Hungarian publisher Cser Kiadó.[11][12][13][14][15][16] He has had articles published in Afghanistan, Brazil, Germany, the UK and the USA.[17][18][19][20][21] Additionally he wrote a bimonthly travel column in the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun in 2013-2015 and occasionally delivers travel articles from Norway to The Guardian.[22][23][24]

Presentations and speeches

Garfors has participated in panel discussions or presented at media conferences in over 20 countries on six continents and has spoken at travel presentations internationally, i.e. at TEDx in Binghamton, New York in 2017 and The Telegraph Travel Show in London in 2017.[25][26][27] Schools, colleges, universities, libraries, prisons and corporate entities have also had Garfors present at various events.[25]

Broadcasting

He works as an advisor for broadcasting and new media at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) in Oslo, is president of IDAG (the International DMB Advancement Group) and sat one year as vice president of the mobile expert group of the European Broadcasting Union in 2008 and 2009.[28] Garfors was CEO of Norwegian Mobile TV Corporation in 2008–2013. The company was the first in Europe to launch mobile TV services via DMB in 2009.[29][30][31][32][33] In 2004, he headed the launch of live TV to mobile phones for NRK as the first in the world. He was one of the pioneers of a number of other innovative mobile services, i.e. the world's first personalized ads in a mobile TV service and advanced forms of interactivity that combined mobile services and television.[34]

Football

He used to play football for Førde IL in Norwegian Second and Third Division in the 1990s and was the team's top goal scorer for two seasons. Garfors played for Falmouth Town 1995–98 and trained with Plymouth Argyle in English Division 2 in 1996.[4]

References

  1. Langset Mona "Ny rekord for Globetrotter-Gunnar: To ganger i alle verdens land", Verdens Gang, Oslo, 16 December 2018.
  2. Gonsholt Simen V. "I dag er Gunnars livsverk komplett", Dagens Næringsliv, Oslo, 10 May 2013.
  3. Radiodays Europe 2012 "Presentation slides", Slideshare, Barcelona Marc 20, 2012
  4. Garfors, Gunnar. "Gunnar Garfors Biography" Archived 31 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine, garfors.com, Oslo, 1 January 2013.
  5. "The Best Travelled - UN Master List" Archived 4 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine, The Best Travelled Retrieved 21 February 2016
  6. Luigi, Patricia and Roger. 365 Destinations, Guaratuba, 6 October 2013 Archived 27 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Wong, Hiufu. "How to travel five continents in one day" Archived 4 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine, CNN, Hong Kong, 29 June 2012.
  8. Staff writer. "Friends film visit to five continents in one day", BBC, Dorset, 2 July 2012.
  9. "Fastest circumnavigation by scheduled flights, visiting six continents (team)", Guinness World Records, London, 2 February 2018.
  10. Huggler, Justin. "How a Norwegian trio visited most of Europe in 24 hours", The Telegraph, Berlin, 22 September 2014.
  11. "198", Samlaget, Oslo, 2014.
  12. "Ete fysst", Selja, Førde, 2014.
  13. "198: How I Ran Out of Countries", Amazon, 2015.
  14. "Ingenstad", Skald, Leikanger, 2019.
  15. "Elsewhere - Trips to the world's least visited countries", Northern Stories, Oslo, 2019.
  16. Stadheim, Ivar. "Fem kontinent på ein dag – no er han i Guinness rekordbok", Firda. Førde, 19 March 2014.
  17. Garfors, Gunnar. "The 25 Least Visited Countries in the World" Archived 4 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Afghanistan Scene. Afghanistan, 7 June 2012.
  18. Garfors, Gunnar. "Os países menos visitados do mundo", Gabriel Quer Viajar. Brazil, 3 June 2012.
  19. Garfors, Gunnar. "DIE FÜNF UNZUGÄNGLICHSTEN LÄNDER", Capital. Germany, 13 June 2013.
  20. Garfors, Gunnar. "So you think it is only radio", Eureka. London, 5 September 2013.
  21. Garfors, Gunnar. "Gunnar Garfors", Business Insider. USA, 2013.
  22. Garfors, Gunnar. Mainichi Weekly, pages 8–9. Japan, 19 April 2014
  23. "Step aside Denmark. Norway takes world’s happiest nation crown", The Guardian, London, 23 March 2017.
  24. "The Guardian: Gunnar Garfors", Google, Oslo, 03 January 2020.
  25. "Presentations by Gunnar Garfors?", Garfors, Gunnar, Oslo, 2 May 2016.
  26. "World’s Least-Visited Countries Revisited", TEDxBinghamtonUniversity, Binghamton, 15 May 2017.
  27. "The Telegraph Travel Show: a brief insight", Hunt, Jordan, London, 7 February 2017.
  28. Doyle James. "Top Gun" Archived 27 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Mobile TV World, London, 4 October 2012.
  29. Valmot, Odd Richard. "Seks kanaler i lomma i dag", Teknisk Ukeblad, Oslo, 15 May 2009.
  30. Briel, Robert. "Norway launches mobile TV via DMB", Broadband TV News. London, 18 May 2009.
  31. Baugerød Stokke, Ole Petter. "Gir nordmenn tv på do", Computerworld. Oslo, 10 November 2009.
  32. Børringbo, Klaus. "Klart for mobil-tv i april", Aftenposten. Oslo, 13 January. 2009.
  33. Weiby, Hans Erik Weiby and Slydal Johansen, Glenn. "Se NRK hvor som helst – på mini-tv", Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Oslo, 15 May 2009.
  34. Axline, Keith. "Reach out and touch Bono", Wired. USA, 12 February 2005.
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