India clocked the biggest improvement among the top performers in global tourism, jumping from 40th in 2017 to 34th in the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
As per the report, China, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil and India -- which are not high-income economies but rank in the top 35 in the overall list -- stand out in the Cultural Resources and Business Travel Pillar through their combination of rich natural and cultural resources and strong price competitiveness.
From a sub-regional perspective, India has better air infrastructure (33rd) and ground and port infrastructure (28th), international openness (51st) and natural (14th) and cultural resources (8th).
Spain topped in the global rank list and followed by France, Germany and Japan, with the United States replacing the UK in the top five.
In this ranking system, 140 economies were ranked in four sub-indexes:-
enabling environment,
travel and tourism policy and enabling conditions,
infrastructure, and
natural and cultural resources.
Together, these four sub-indexes include a total of 14 pillars, which are used to score a country’s overall travel and tourism competitiveness.
