Nation jumps in tourism, travel ranking

      Viet Nam has jumped seven places to 89th among133 countries on the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) for the year.
The report said Viet Nam’s rating reached 3.7 points. Out of the 27 nations in the Asia, Pacific region listed in the forum’s rankings, Viet Nam was 17th. Australia took the lead in the region.
In terms of legislative factors, Viet Nam was ranked at 92 among 133 countries and 20th among 27 Asia-Pacific economies. For the index of business environment and infrastructure, Viet Nam stood at 85 among 133 and 16 out of 27 regional nations. Concerning the third group on human resources, Viet Nam reached 76th of 133 and 17 among 27 Asia Pacific countries.
The country was found to have competitive travel and tourism prices, and climbed to 11th out of 133 listed countries for this category.
Regarding the index on human resources, the country ranked overall relatively low, but in the category for supply of a highly qualified workforce it stood at 40th.
Also, TTCI confirmed Viet Nam had high potential in terms of the number of world heritage sites.
Negative points for the country were found to be the stringent visa and immigration requirements, restriction for foreign ownership, poor environmental sustainability, restrictive regulations, as well as poor transportation and tourism infrastructure.
Many tourism firms and experts said Viet Nam’s travel and tourism sector should define itself more and implement solutions to increase the national tourism industry’s competitive ability.
The TTCI measures the different regulatory and business-related issues that have been identified as levers for improving travel and tourism competitiveness in countries around the world.
This year’s report, published under the theme "Managing in a Time of Turbulence", reflects the difficulties the industry currently faces and the issues to be overcome for strong growth in the future.
This is particularly captured by the topics covered in the analytical chapters, exploring issues such as the impact of oil prices on the tourism industry, the importance of price competitiveness for attracting tourists and the extent to which the index explains differences in travel intensity between countries.