Bangkok, Thailand, March 11, 2021 / TRAVELINDEX / Top 25 Restaurants and Travelindex presented their awards today at Restaurant Savelberg to Bangkok's five best chefs. Bangkok, ranked the world's most popular travel destination in Mastercard's annual Travelindex for years and boasting an extremely diverse and dynamic culinary scene, was the perfect location for the inaugural Top 25 Restaurants Awards ceremony.

The awards were presented by Khun Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, Deputy Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, to the following chefs:

– Head chef Arnaud Dunand Sauthier of Le Normandie at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel,

– Chef Ryuki Kawasaki from the Mezzaluna restaurant in the lebua vertical destination,

– Chef Vincent Thierry from the Chef's Table at the lebua vertical destination,

– Chef Henk Savelberg of Restaurant Savelberg at Oriental Residence,

– Head chef Supaksorn Jongsiri of Sorn.

Top25Restaurants.com, published by the Travelindex Group, is the world's first and only AI-powered restaurant guide. Top25Restaurants.com released its latest ranking for Bangkok in December 2020.

Top25Restaurants.com celebrates fine dining in five Asian cities, highlighting each city's culinary dynamism, emerging trends, and chefs who utilize local produce. Top 25 Restaurants contributes to the prestige of the local gourmet scene and, through its integration into the global Travelindex ecosystem, helps attract more visitors and tourists to these cities and countries.

Restaurant ratings and reviews play a crucial role in purchasing decisions. The "Top 25 Restaurants" guide is based on the "Restaurant Rating Index," developed and patented by Travelindex. This three-tiered rating system combines collective intelligence (from social media and review portals) with behavioral AI algorithms and the expertise of some of the world's leading culinary experts.

“We believe that our restaurant guide and awards will help to promote the image of Bangkok and Thailand as a world-class regional gastronomy destination once the pandemic is under control,” said Bernard Metzger, founder of the Travelindex Group and the Top25Restaurants Guide series.

He added: “Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, experts were unable to visit and evaluate restaurants as in previous years. Out of respect for the chefs and owners, whose main concern this year was survival rather than winning awards or improving ratings, we have enhanced our algorithm with additional contextual data and feedback from local foodies.”

The hospitality and restaurant industry in Bangkok and Thailand was severely impacted by the pandemic, leading to some permanent restaurant closures. However, Thailand's overall response and ability to contain COVID-19 infections led the World Health Organization (WHO) to recognize Thailand as a success story in managing the pandemic.

The Travelindex Group and Top25Restaurants.com are committed to further promoting Thailand as a gourmet paradise and attracting more food lovers by publishing a significantly expanded restaurant guide and a larger awards event in 2022.

About Travelindex and Top25Restaurants.com: Travelindex is a content-driven ecosystem for the travel and tourism industry. The group operates an open and free digital platform that directly connects over 800,000 businesses worldwide. With a network of over 90 proprietary online offerings, we connect the tourism and lifestyle industries. Travelindex provides a unique marketing channel for all organizations, companies, and businesses in the travel, hospitality, and lifestyle sectors. The Top25Restaurants guide series is currently published in Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Delhi, and Shanghai. The Travelindex Group contributes to socio-economic development by enabling universal and equitable access to data and information.

Travelindex is an associate member of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and a preferred partner of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).