Free holidays for geeks!

Thailand’s tourism association is looking for foreigners who are happy to blog, chat and tweet while on vacation.

Five lucky couples will get a fully paid trip to Thailand’s most popular cities and beaches. But, in return, they have to describe their trip in regular internet postings.

Candidates need to be ‘good story-tellers’ who know their way around YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr, said the Tourism Association of Thailand.

Details of the application process can be found at the association’s new website www.ultimatethailandexplorer.com, where fun-seeking cybernauts can submit one-minute video auditions until October 15.

After the holiday the best blogger will win a grand prize of $10,000, a BlackBerry and a video camera.

A panel of TAT officials will select 25 semifinalists by 15 October and the winning five couples – and grand prize winner – will be chosen by worldwide online voting.

Each of the five couples will be sent early next year on a six-day trip to Bangkok, the beach resorts of Phuket, Samui and Pattaya, and the northern city of Chiang Mai.

TAT official Phanom Kaributra, who is co-ordinating the contest, said the couples would be free to explore but would not be encouraged to ‘go to red-light districts and places like that’.

Tourism officials were inspired by Australia’s recent campaign dubbed the ‘Best Job in the World‘ to find a caretaker on a tropical Australian island for six months.