India's global travel & tourism index rank up at 39th: WEF index
- In Reports
- 09:52 PM, May 21, 2024
- Myind Staff
In the most recent World Economic Forum's "Travel & Tourism Development Index 2024," India has risen to the 39th spot due to the gradual recovery of travel following the pandemic. According to the annual report released on May 21st, the United States (US) topped the rankings, with India emerging as the leading performer in South Asia and among lower-middle-income countries.
In 2021, India held the 54th position, but due to alterations in index criteria, it's challenging to directly compare this with its rankings in 2022 and 2023. The top four countries in the 2024 list, in order, are Spain, Japan, France, and Australia. As per the index, which was created in partnership with the UK-based University of Surrey, India showcases strong price competitiveness, ranking 18th, along with competitive air transport (26th) and ground and port infrastructure (25th).
India's strong natural (6th), cultural (9th), and non-leisure (9th) resources greatly enhance its appeal as a travel destination, with the country being among only three to achieve a top 10 ranking across all resource categories, according to the WEF. Despite a decrease compared to 2019, India still demonstrates commendable performance in terms of sustainability in travel and tourism demand, particularly due to the growing prevalence of sustainable long-term stays among inbound visitors.
Similar to other nations, India's travel and tourism sector has been affected by global inflationary supply-side trends. This has resulted in a decrease in price competitiveness, while the recovery of air transport and tourist services infrastructure has not yet reached the levels observed in 2019.
India's overall Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) score is 2.1 percent lower than its 2019 level. Leading the index are high-income economies in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The World Economic Forum (WEF) anticipates that international tourist arrivals and the travel and tourism sector's contribution to global gross domestic product (GDP) will return to pre-pandemic levels this year due to the lifting of Covid-19-related travel restrictions and strong pent-up demand.
According to the WEF, the growth of the travel and tourism sector post-pandemic continues, but recovery has been uneven, and operating conditions have been challenging. While 71 out of the 119 TTDI-ranked economies have increased their scores between the 2019 and 2024 editions, the average index score is only 0.7 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels, as stated in the report.
In 2023, West Asia demonstrated remarkable recovery rates in international tourist arrivals, surpassing 2019 levels by 20 percent. Meanwhile, Europe, Africa, and North and South America all showed strong recoveries of approximately 90 percent. The biennial index evaluated the travel and tourism sectors of 119 countries, considering various factors and policies. Germany secured the 6th position, with the UK, China, Italy, and Switzerland following in the top ten rankings.
The findings highlighted that high-income economies typically provide more favourable conditions for travel and tourism development. This is attributed to conducive business environments, dynamic labour markets, open travel policies, robust transportation and tourism infrastructure, as well as well-developed natural, cultural, and non-leisure attractions.
Conditions supporting travel and tourism (T&T) in developing nations are steadily improving, but there's still much work needed to narrow the gap in enabling the sector. Among the 71 economies that have seen improvements in their TTDI scores since 2019, 52 belong to low to upper-middle-income brackets. Notably, only Saudi Arabia (+5.7%, moving from 50th to 41st) and the United Arab Emirates (+4.4%, climbing from 25th to 18th) from high-income economies rank among the top 10 most improved between 2019 and 2024. The rest are developing nations such as Uzbekistan (+7.8%, advancing from 94th to 78th), Côte d’Ivoire (+6.4%, progressing from 116th to 114th), Albania (+5.9%, moving from 78th to 66th), Tanzania (+4.5%, rising from 88th to 81st), and Indonesia (+4.5%, jumping from 36th to 22nd).
Image Source: Daily Excelsior
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