Europe dominates travel and tourism competitiveness – that’s the main conclusion of the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2017 (TCC), published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which analyses 136 counties.
The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index measures “the set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the travel and tourism sector, which in turn, contributes to the development and competitiveness of a country.”
The theme of the 2017 report is Paving the Way for a More Sustainable and Inclusive Future, reflects the increasing focus on ensuring the industry’s sustained growth in an uncertain security environment while preserving the natural environment and local communities on which it so richly depends.
Spain tops the TTCI global rankings for the second time, followed by France, Germany, Japan – which gained five places – and the United Kingdom.
The United States fall down two places to sixth, followed by Australia, Italy, Canada – up one place – and Switzerland, falling four places to 10th.
Europe and Eurasia is again the region with the strongest overall T&T competitiveness performance, with six economies in the top 10.
Cheryl Martin Head of Industries, Member of the Managing Board World Economic Forum and Richard Samans Head of the Centre for the Global Agenda, Member of the Managing Board World Economic Forum, say, “It continues to lead the rankings thanks to its cultural richness, its excellent tourism service infrastructure, its international openness as well as its perceived safety, despite slightly declining security perceptions in Western and Southern Europe.”
The four key findings in the report are:
- T&T competitiveness is improving, especially in developing countries, and particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. As the industry continues to grow, an increasing share of international visitors are coming from and travel to emerging and developing nations.
- In an increasingly protectionist context—one that is hindering global trade—the T&T industry continues building bridges rather than walls between people, as made apparent by increasing numbers of people travelling across borders and global trends toward adopting less restrictive visa policies.
- In light of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, connectivity has increasingly become a must-have for countries as they develop their digital strategy.
- Despite the growing awareness of the importance of the environment, the T&T sector faces the difficulties to develop sustainably as natural degradation proceeds on a number of fronts.
The number of people on the move today is unprecedented, with international arrivals increasing from just 25million in the 1950s to 1.2billion in 2016.
While, historically, the majority of travel was North to North, this reality is changing. Outbound travel from Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific is expected to grow exponentially in the coming decade, says the report. “In fact, since the global financial crisis, tourist expenditures from developing nations have grown faster than that of expenditures from advanced economies- a trend on track to continue in the coming years.”
Developing and emerging markets are not only becoming larger source markets, but they are also improving their T&T competitiveness in order to position themselves as more attractive destinations for developing the T&T sector.
The 2017 edition of the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report finds that several developing and emerging economies have significantly improved their performance scores from 2015, when the previous edition was published. Indeed, 12 of the top 15 most-improved countries are developing and emerging markets, with at least one country from each of the five geographical macro-regions represented in the report.
These results echo World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) research, which forecasts that between 2016 and 2026, the 10 fastest growing destinations for leisure-travel spending will be India, followed by Angola, Uganda, Brunei, Thailand, China, Myanmar, Oman, Mozambique and Vietnam.
“These shifts suggest that developing and emerging countries are catching up, providing better conditions to develop their T&T competitiveness and, therefore, becoming better prepared to attract and welcome the millions of new tourists who will travel for the first time in the coming decade.”
This growth in demand is here to stay. South-South tourism is on the rise, and will increasingly do so as these countries improve their competitiveness and develop their T&T sectors.
More and more, governments around the world are realizing that, for the most part, barriers to travel are not making people and countries safer, but are hindering economic growth, job creation and tolerance between countries.
With a growing “wanderlust”, there is a unique opportunity for many countries to benefit from the T&T industry while, at the same time, ensuring the security of borders and citizens. This trend is sustained by diverging underlying policies in trade and tourism.
In 2016, destinations worldwide required 58% of the world’s population to obtain a visa prior to departure. This is a significant improvement from 2008, when 77% of the world’s population was made to apply for a traditional visa.
In general, the great majority (approximately 85%) of countries have reduced, at least partially, the burden of obtaining a tourism visa in the past two years. This contrasts with the minimal progress made on trade policy. Only about half of the countries assessed by the Travel & Tourism Competitive Index (TTCI) improved their non-tariff trade barriers and the total number of trade protectionist measures has actually increased since 2015.
Significant divides remain among sub-regions, including the prioritization of the sector, environmental sustainability policies and an enabling business environment.
The Americas is the macro region with the second most improved performance at the aggregate level, with the United States (6th), Canada (9th), Mexico (22nd) and Brazil (27th) all ranking in the top 30.
While most of the countries in the region rely on rich natural resources, vast differences remain across the region. While North America should enhance its price competitiveness, environmental sustainability and infrastructure; Central and South American nations should continue improving their safety and security, create more enabling environments for business and develop their infrastructure to enhance connectivity.
Asia-Pacific consists of some of the economies that have flourished most in recent years and five out of the 15 most-improved countries in the index: Japan (4th), Korea (19th), India (40th), Vietnam (67th) and Bhutan (78th).
While East Asia and Australia boats world class infrastructure and are among the most ICT-ready economies globally, they are also relatively less price competitive than other areas in the region. Conversely, while South-East Asian and South Asian nations are more price-competitive destinations, infrastructure and ICT readiness lags for the most part. Improving regional visa policies could further enhance travel and tourism.
Despite significant headwinds, the Middle East and North Africa, led by the United Arab Emirates (29th), has improved its T&T competitiveness. Better ICT infrastructure, lower prices, partial improvements in international openness and some progress in nurturing cultural heritage have created better conditions to develop the T&T sector overall. Still, natural and cultural resources remain mostly underexploited, international openness is still limited and security perceptions remain the biggest hurdle.
Sub-Saharan Africa showcases South Africa (53rd), Mauritius (55th), Kenya (80th) and Namibia (82nd) as its four most T&T competitive economies.
Despite sustained economic growth, T&T remains mostly untapped. Air connectivity and travel costs remain challenges as well as visa policies and infrastructure. While tourism in the region is mainly driven by natural tourism, there is significant room for improvement in protecting, valuing and communicating cultural richness.
The main image is from Pixabay.com.
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