Gunnar Garfors (born 29 May 1975) is a Norwegian traveler, 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.Langset Mon
"Ny rekord for Globetrotter-Gunnar: To ganger i alle verdens land"
''Verdens Gang'', Oslo, 16 December 2018. 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.Gonsholt Simen V
"I dag er Gunnars livsverk komplett"
''Dagens Næringsliv'', Oslo, 10 May 2013. He strongly advocates for the necessity of broadcasting as a distribution technology, in parallel to the Internet.

Early life

Garfors is the oldest of seven children. He was born in

Hammerfest Hammerfest (; sme, Hámmerfeasta ) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. Hammerfest is the northernmost town in the world with more than 10,000 inhabitants. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Hammerf ...

in Northern Norway but soon moved to

Naustdal Naustdal is a former municipality in the old Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. It was located in the traditional district of Sunnfjord. The administrative centre was the village of Naustdal, which has 1,188 inhabitants (2017). Other village ...

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 Havøysund ( sme, Ávanuorri) is the administrative centre of the Måsøy Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The village is located on the small island of Havøya, but is connected to the mainland by the Havøysund Bridge. The ...

Førde Førde is a former municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It was located in the traditional district of Sunnfjord. The administrative center was the town of Førde which in 2016 had 10,255 inhabitants. Other villages in Førd ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, Falmouth,

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

and

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

. He now lives in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

.Garfors, Gunnar
"Gunnar Garfors Biography"
, ''garfors.com'', Oslo, 1 January 2013. 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 BI Norwegian Business School () is the largest business school in Norway and the second largest in all of Europe. BI has in total four campuses with the main one located in Oslo. The university has 845 employees consisting of an academic staff of ...

Travels

Garfors has visited every country in the world and is the youngest hobby traveller to have done so. December 16, 2018 he visited Estonia to become the first person to visit all 198 countries in the world twice.Langset Mon
"Ny rekord for Globetrotter-Gunnar: To ganger i alle verdens land"
''Verdens Gang'', Oslo, 16 December 2018. 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. 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 Erik de Zwart (born 16 June 1957 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch broadcaster, former D.J., former Music Box, The Music Factory and MTV V.J. and media entrepreneur. He was co-founder and shareholder of Radio 538 (1992) and The Music Factory (1995). P ...

and Ronald Haanstra."Fastest circumnavigation by scheduled flights, visiting six continents (team)"
''Guinness World Records'', London, 2 February 2018. 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. Garfors also writes garfors.com, a blog on travel.

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 Det Norske Samlaget is a Norwegian publishing house founded on 24 March 1868 with the aim to promote and publish books in Landsmål, now known as Nynorsk. ''Det Norske Samlaget'' is now divided into two institutions: a literature organization, ' ...

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, and was self-published in English 2021. 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. His third book "Bortom allfarveg - 81 reisetips til ein spektakulær noregsferie" ("Beyond the Beaten Track – 81 travel tips to a spectacular holiday in Norway") came out in April 2021 and sold out in only four days. Later the same year it featured on the Norwegian non-fiction bestseller list for 12 weeks."198"
''Samlaget'', Oslo, 2014. "Ete fysst"
''Selja'', Førde, 2014. "198: How I Ran Out of Countries"
''Amazon'', 2015. "Ingenstad"
''Skald'', Leikanger, 2019. "Elsewhere - Trips to the world's least visited countries"
''Northern Stories'', Oslo, 2019. "Elsewhere"
''Amazon'', 2021. "Ingenstad"
''Skald'', Leikanger, 2021. "Utsolgt på fire dager"
''Bok 365'', Oslo, 2021. He has had articles published in Afghanistan, Brazil, Germany, the UK and the USA. Additionally he wrote a bimonthly travel column in the Japanese newspaper

Mainichi Shimbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (previ ...

in 2013-2015 and occasionally delivers travel articles from Norway to

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

."Step aside Denmark. Norway takes world’s happiest nation crown"
''The Guardian'', London, 23 March 2017. "The Guardian: Gunnar Garfors"
''Google'', Oslo, 03 January 2020.

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 TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

in Binghamton, New York in 2017 and The Telegraph Travel Show in London in 2017."World’s Least-Visited Countries Revisited"
''TEDxBinghamtonUniversity'', Binghamton, 15 May 2017. "The Telegraph Travel Show: a brief insight"
''Hunt, Jordan'', London, 7 February 2017. Schools, colleges, universities, libraries, prisons and corporate entities have also had Garfors present at various events."Presentations by Gunnar Garfors?"
''Garfors, Gunnar'', Oslo, 2 May 2016.

Broadcasting

He works as an advisor for

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting beg ...

and

new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...

at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) in

, is president of IDAG (the

International DMB Advancement Group International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

) and sat one year as vice president of the mobile expert group of the European Broadcasting Union in 2008 and 2009. Garfors was CEO of

Norwegian Mobile TV Corporation Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

in 2008–2013. The company was the first in Europe to launch mobile TV services via DMB in 2009. 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.Axline, Keith
"Reach out and touch Bono"
''Wired''. USA, 12 February 2005.

Football

He used to play football for

Førde IL Førde Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club based in Førde, Sunnfjord. It has sections for alpine skiing, association football, athletics, biathlon, cross-country skiing, floorball, gymnastics, handball, orienteering, powerlifting, ski jumping, ...

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 Falmouth Town Association Football Club is a football club based in Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom. They are currently members of the and play at Bickland Park. The club were the first Cornish team to reach the first round proper of the F ...

1995–98 and trained with Plymouth Argyle in English Division 2 in 1996.

References

External links

The Garfors Globe
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garfors, Gunnar 1975 births Living people Travelers Circumnavigators_of_the_globe People from Hammerfest People from Naustdal Writers from Oslo Alumni of Falmouth University NRK people Falmouth Town A.F.C. players Association footballers not categorized by position Norwegian columnists Norwegian footballers Television people from Oslo