India in Travel and Tourism Competitive Index

India has made tremendous progress in tourism in last few years. In just 2 years India has moved up its rank in World Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index. It is the biggest improvement among the top 25% of all countries rank in the report over 2017. In the list of top 35 tourist destination China, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil and India stand up their performance in terms of their tourism potential in the region. From heritage to Nature and Culture, India offers an infinite variety of things to do that no other country can offer.

What is India's Ranking in Travel and Tourism Competitive Index ?

India is now ranked 34th on the world travel and tourism competitiveness index. A world economy forum report says India has got 34th rank driven by rich natural resources. India's ranking jumped from 40th to 34th, which is the greatest improvement over 2017 among the top 25% of all countries ranked in the report. India accounts for the majority of South Asia's  travel and tourism GDP and the sub region is the most competitive travel and tourism economy. The report also says that India is only lower middle income country in the top 35.

Why India has got rank in Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index ?

For sub regional perspective, India has better Air infrastructure ranked at 33, Ground and Port infrastructure ranked 28. International openness ranked 51, Natural resources ranked 14 and Cultural resources ranked 8. India's price competitiveness ranked 13. Other factors that have enabled India to improve its ranking is its Business Environment that has moved out from 89th to 39th. Overall travel and tour policy and enabling conditions has moved out from 79th to 69th. Infrastructure that has gone up 58th to 55th. Information and communication technology readiness that has improved from 112th to 105th.

However, there are areas still that India needs to work upon which includes enabling environment, tourist service infrastructure and environmental sustainability.

What are other Countries' ranking ?

The travel and Tourism competitiveness index ranks Spain on the top spot followed by France, Germany, Japan, USA is in the top five. The United Kingdom has moved to 6th place, Australia is at 7th, Italy, Canada and Switzerland round up the top 10. The report says that Asia-Pacific was one of the fastest growing travel and tourism regions in this year. In the region Japan is most competitive travel and tourism economy while China is largest travel and tourism economy and 13th most competitive globally. Pakistan has ranked 121; is the least competitive country in South Asia when it comes to travel and tourism. Pakistan has ranked least favourable in safety and security conditions.

What is Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index methodology ?

The World Economic forum releases the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index. It measures factors and policy that make a country viable place to invest in tourism sector. It also utilizes four sub-indices to represent the overall quality, future potential and long term sustainability of the tourism sector within each country. For its latest survey the index rank 140 countries across 14 dimensions within the four sub-indices that include an Enabling environment, Travel and Tourism policy, Infrastructure, Natural and Cultural resources. These sub-indices are further composed of 14 pillars of competitiveness that includes Business environment, safety and security, health and hygiene, human resource and labour market, prioritization of travel and tourism, International openness, price competitiveness and Air transport infrastructure. These pillars have 90 indicators that are calculated on the basis of data collected from World Economic Forum Annual Executive Opinion survey. Two-third of the data are non survey data from International Organization. This data is based on each region's proportion of direct employment in tourism industry relative to total labour force in the region. The result is multiplied by region's travel and tourism competitiveness index score that range 1 to 6 using maximum value 6 and minimum of 1. To keep the methodology up to date, World Economic Forum and its many data partners engage in year long review process in consultation with experts including global agenda council members, policy-makers and other users of the index. A country that ranks high in report indicates that it has necessary infrastructure, stability in natural resources and other amenities to make it attractive to visitors. Besides, this it can make positive contribution to local and national economies. Travel and Tourism competitiveness index is also used to calculate status of travel and tourism goal which is part of 17th sustainable development goals set by the United Nations in 2015 for the year 2030.  The goal features tourism in three out of the 17 goals including sustainable economic growth and employment, sustainable consumption and production, conservation and sustainable use of the marine resources.

Economic contribution of Global Travel and Tourism Sector:

The Global Travel and Tourism sector generated 10.4% of all Global Economic activity in 2018. It grew at 3.9% to contribute record 8.8 trillion dollar and 319 million job to world economy in 2018. For the 8th year in row, this was above the growth rate of world's GDP. Travel and tourism now accounts for one in five of new job created worldwide and is estimated to contribute 100 million new job globally in coming 10 years.