Travel and Tourism competitiveness

  • Spain has, once again, topped the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) list on travel and tourism competitiveness.
  • WEF’s biennial report is based on the theme ‘paving the way for a more sustainable and inclusive future’. France and Germany continue to be ranked second and third respectively, depicting no change from the 2015 edition.
  • Surprise entry in the top five countries is Japan, which is ranked at number four, a jump of five places from the last time the rankings were released.
  • Japan is said to have a great tourist inflow because of two-fold reasons of ‘unique cultural resources and business’.
  • India was ranked at 40, a considerable jump of 12 places from 2015. Asia-Pacific also emerged as the most-improved region.
  • War-torn country Yemen was ranked the last of the analysed nations, at 136, still a jump of two places.
  • African countries Burundi and Chad were ranked 134 and 135, respectively.
  • Azerbaijan at 71st position is one of the most improved economies this year, rising 13 places in the global rankings.
  • According to the report, the travel and tourism industry contributed $7.6 trillion to the global economy (10.2 per cent of global GDP) and generated 292 million jobs (1 in 10 jobs on the planet) in 2016.

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