The World Travel & Tourism Council has launched a new Power & Performance Report as part of World Tourism Day.
China, the USA and India take the top three spots in the new rankings which combines growth over the past seven years in tourism’s contribution to GDP, international visitor spend, domestic tourism spend and capital investment.
WTTC chief executive Gloria Guevara commented: “World Tourism Day is the global celebration of a sector that contributes 10.4 per cent of the world’s GDP and generates 313 million jobs.
“WTTC’s new report outlines power and performance rankings which showcase countries that have been most successful in growing their tourism sectors across the board.”
Using WTTC’s annual economic impact data, this new report ranks the performance of 185 countries over the last seven-year period, combining four indicators: contribution of tourism to GDP, international visitor spend, domestic tourism spend and capital investment in tourism.
The inclusion of domestic spend and investment allows for a more rounded measure of performance and prioritisation than the more usual measures of GDP contribution and international spend.
The report includes two rankings.
The Power ranking looks at those countries whose tourism has grown most in absolute terms over the past seven years.
The top ten countries in the power ranking are:
China
USA
India
Mexico
United Kingdom
Spain
Turkey
Canada
Indonesia
= Australia and United Arab Emirates
The Performance ranking looks at those countries whose tourism has grown most quickly in percentage terms over the past seven years.
These countries are those which are maximising the opportunity of tourism to drive economic development.
The top ten countries in the Performance ranking are:
Myanmar
Iraq
Georgia
Rwanda
Iceland
Nicaragua
Qatar
Congo
Armenia
Ivory Coast
Guevara continued: “Notably, G20 countries dominate the league, representing 12 of the top 20 countries, displaying once again the importance of tourism both to mature markets and the global economy.
“Then, the emergence of up-and-coming countries highlights the central role that tourism can play within developing economies.”
She added: “WTTC advocates that such growth is driven by strong travel facilitation policies, sustainable and proactive planning, and robust infrastructures that can withstand crises.
“Under such management, tourism can thrive, as in the case of Indonesia where radical visa reform has been matched by a rapid growth in international tourist arrivals in the last seven years.”