"Best ferry company" 2009

The Hague, October 19th 2009

For the second year running Norfolkline have won the Guardian, Observer and guardian.co.uk travel award for "Best ferry company".

The awards, now in their 23rd year, asked the UK public to decide who they believed to be the best ferry company in the travel industry, and as in 2008 the UK public chose Norfolkline as the "Best ferry company".

The number of readers taking part in the Travel Awards survey seems to show no loss of appetite for holidays despite the economic downsturn, with 19,248 participants giving their views this year, up from 17,000 last year.

Norfolkline operates passenger ferries on the Irish Sea (between Livepool and Belfast/Dublin), the North Sea (between Rosyth and Zeebrugge) and on the English Channel (between Dover and Dunkirk), and the "Best ferry company" award is in recognition of the service across all of Norfolkline's routes, with Norfolkline beating off stiff competition to take this year's award.

Kell Robdrup (Managing Director, Norfolkline Ferry Division) commented:

"As Managing Director of the Ferry Division, I am very pleased to see that the hard work of the whole Ferry Division is being rewarded and recognized by our customers and readers.

This year has proven to be a challenging one for our industry and an award like this only shows the great determination of our employees and organization during very difficult times."

Norfolkline's Theresa Foley on hand to pick-up the 'Best ferry company' award on behalf of Norfolkline.

Presenting the award were TV presenter and journalist Mariella Frostrup (Arts & Culture Correspondent, The Observer) and Tom Robbins (Deputy Travel Editor), The Guardian.

The ceremony for this prestigious award was held in Bangkok and the full list of winners is published on the guardian.co.uk.

The award follows hot on the heels of Norfolkline's success at the International Freight Weekly awards where Norfolkline were named "Shortsea/RoRo Operator of the Year", and being named "Top Irish Training Operator" at the the annual Freight and Export Transport and Logistics awards