Which country was the first in the world to have its own official, dedicated phone number?

If a person today is curious about (or thinking of visiting) Sweden, they can always look up information about the country online, perhaps visiting travel sites. But for about two and a half months in 2016, they could have just picked up the phone and dialed the country instead.

In April of 2016, Sweden became the first country in the world to have its own official phone number, which was known as ‘The Swedish Number’. The dedicated line was set up as part of a marketing campaign by the Swedish Tourist Association.

The hotline worked by connecting callers dialing from outside of Sweden, to random phone numbers of Swedish citizens, who had agreed in advance to serve as ambassadors for the program.

The idea was to help tourists, and people who simply wanted to learn more about Sweden, to get a real idea of what the country is like, as well as insights and travel tips, by means of conversations with those who know Sweden best - the local residents. Callers would be connected to a random Swede and could ask and talk about anything. Certainly, it would have been fun and interesting to have all of one’s questions answered by someone other than tourism officials or travel agents.

During the 79 days the line was open,197,678 calls were put through. When the duration of all the calls was added up, they totaled over 367 days’ worth of time. (That’s more than a year!)