The Travel & Tourism

Competitiveness Report

Measuring Travel and Tourism Competitiveness

John Kester

Guilin, China, 29 June 2007

 The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report
Motivations

Travel and tourism (T&T) is in many countries a critical sector

impacting national prosperity and economic growth

A cross-country analysis of the drivers of T&T

competitiveness provides useful comparative information for
making business decisions

The analysis also provides a platform for dialogue between

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industry and policymakers to address the obstacles to T&T

Competitiveness Index

competitiveness
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 The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index
Definition: What are we trying to measure?

Definition of T&T competitiveness for constructing the index:

The factors and policies

that make it attractive to
develop the T&T sector
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in different countries
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 The T&T Competitiveness Index
Structure

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B. T&T Business C. T&T Human,

A. T&T Regulatory Environment & Cultural &
Framework Infrastructure Natural Resources

1.Policy rules & 6. Air transport

11. Human capital
regulations Infrastructure

2. Environmental 7. Ground transport 12. National tourism

regulation infrastructure perception
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Competitiveness Index

13. Natural and cultural

3. Safety & security 8. Tourism infrastructure
resources
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4. Health & hygiene 9. ICT infrastructure

5. Prioritization of 10. Price

T&T competitiveness
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 The T&T Index
Data sources

Quantitative data from publicly available sources, T&T

institutions and industry experts (Booz Allen, IATA, ICAO,
UNWTO, WTTC, etc.)

Qualitative data from the Forums Executive Opinion Survey:

Carried out among CEOs and top business leaders in all
countries: the people making the investment decisions in their
respective economies
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Provides unique data on many qualitative institutional and

Competitiveness Index

business environment issues

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Specific questions on T&T have been added to the Survey for the
purposes of this Report

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 The T&T Index
Components and variables (1/3)

Examples of variables
A. T&T Regulatory
Framework Foreign ownership restrictions

Openness of air service agreements

1. Policy rules
and regulations Visitor visa requirements

2. Environmental Sustainable development of T&T industry

regulation
Costs of crime and violence

3. Safety and Security Access to improved sanitation

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Competitiveness Index

Effectiveness of marketing and branding

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4. Health and Hygiene to attract inbound tourists

Prioritization by government of the T&T

5. Prioritization of T&T industry

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 The T&T Index
Components and variables (2/3)

B. T&T Business Examples of variables

Environment and
Infrastructure Air transport infrastructure quality

Quality of airline connections to overseas

6. Air transport markets
infrastructure
Quality of roads, railroads, ports, etc.
7. Ground transport
infrastructure
Hotel concentration

Presence of top international car rental

companies in a country
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8. Tourism infrastructure
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Internet use for business transactions in

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country
9. ICT infrastructure

Airport taxes and charges

10. Price PPP conversion factor
Competitiveness
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 The T&T Index
Components and variables (3/3)

C. T&T Human, Examples of variables

Cultural &
Natural Resources Educational attainment rates

Extent of staff training

11. Human capital
Attitude towards tourists

Tourism openness
12. National tourism
perception
Recommendation to extend business trips
for tourism
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13. Natural and cultural

Nationally protected land areas
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resources
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Environmental damage

Number of World Heritage sites

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 The T&T Competitiveness Report 2007
Structure & Content

Part 1: Chapters
Presentation and analysis of the rankings

Selected issues of T&T competitiveness

Part 2: Country profiles

T&T indicators for 124 countries

Overview of rankings and scores

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Competitiveness Index

Part 3: Data tables

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Includes all index variables

Country rankings per variable

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 The T&T Index
Results (1/3)
Top 20 rankings

Country Rank Country Rank

Switzerland 1 Denmark 11
Austria 2 France 12
Germany 3 Australia 13
Iceland 4 New Zealand 14
United States 5 Spain 15
Finland 16
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Hong Kong 6
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Canada 7 Sweden 17
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Singapore 8 UAE 18
Luxembourg 9 Netherlands 19
United Kingdom 10 Cyprus 20
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 The T&T Index
Results (2/3)

Asian top ten LAC top ten

Country Rank Country Rank

Hong Kong 6 Barbados 29
Singapore 8 Costa Rica 41
Japan 25 Chile 45
Taiwan 30 Mexico 49
Malaysia 31 Dominican Rep. 50
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Korea 42 Panama 55
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Thailand 43 Uruguay 56
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Indonesia 60 Brazil 59
India 65 Argentina 64
China 71 Guatemala 69
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 The T&T Index
Results (3/3)

MENA ranking Sub-Saharan African top ten

Country Rank Country Rank

UAE 18 Mauritius 39
Israel 32 South Africa 62
Tunisia 34 Botswana 70
Qatar 36 Namibia 73
Jordan 46 Tanzania 80
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Bahrain 47 Gambia 84
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Morocco 57 Mauritania 92
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Egypt 58 Zambia 94
Kuwait 67 Kenya 98
Algeria 93 Uganda 101
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 The T&T Index
Understanding and using TTCI

it is not a beauty contest, but an instrument to assess

strengths and weaknesses

it is not a performance indicator

you have to compare yourself with peers

no destination scores well on all indicators

methodology itself has strengths and weaknesses

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it is work in progress
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 The T&T Index
Strengths and weaknesses of TTCI

Strengths
straight forward methodology

fairly easy to understand

comprehensive

transparent

Weaknesses
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choice and availability of suitable indicators

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indicators need to be credible, available, timely, possible to rank

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often proxies have to be used

choice of denominator to make indicators comparable between large and

small countries
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 Travel and Tourism
Competitiveness Index
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 TTCI is not a performance indicator

- left hand side right hand side

- TTCI Arrivals, receipts, tourism GDP

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 Travel and Tourism
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Countries should compare with peers

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 The T&T Index
work in progress

Work began to construct the TTCI in late 2005

Since then, the World Economic Forum worked closely

with partners to ensure that the Index is as
comprehensive and relevant as possible

In coming years, we will continue to refine the TTCI to

establish it as a useful tool for business & government
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Competitiveness Index

The Travel & Tourism Index will be updated on a yearly

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basis to show evolution of performance over time

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 The T&T Index
How to obtain the full report

See WEF website for further information and download of full report:

www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/TravelandTourismReport
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Competitiveness Index
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