Tag Archives: World Economic Forum

Booking.com’s latest report ‘How India Travels 2024 – The Inbound Edit’ highlights the growing appeal of India as a global destination, with a surge in FTAs. This is reflected in India’s 39th rank on the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Travel & Tourism Development Index, up from 54th in 2021.

India was ranked 54th place in a global travel and tourism development index by World Economic Forum, down from 46th in 2019, but still remained on the top within South Asia. Japan has topped the global charts, followed by the US, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, UK, Singapore and Italy in the top ten.  

India ranks at 13th spot in terms of Price Competitiveness, with a score of 6.1, according to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) by World Economic Forum. The better price competitiveness is due to the improved ticket taxes and airport charges, where India ranks at 8th position, while in hotel price index it ranks 15 across the world. Iran and Islamic Republic topped the list in terms of Price Competitiveness. The TTCI benchmarks the T&T competitiveness of 140 economies and measures the set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the Travel & Tourism (T&T) sector, which in turn, contributes to the development and competitiveness of a country.

India has improved 12 places to reach the 40th position globally, according to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 by World Economic Forum. The country has seen continued growth in international arrivals over the past 15 years, reaching the 8 million mark in 2015. India continues to charm international tourists with its vast cultural and natural resources (9th and 24th, respectively), and its price competitiveness advantage (10th). India continues to enrich its cultural resources, protecting more cultural sites and intangible expressions through UNESCO World Heritage lists, and via a greater digital presence. International openness (55th, up 14 places), through stronger visa policies implementing both visas on arrival and e-visas, has enabled India to rise through the ranks. The T&T sector benefited from improvements in the country’s ground transport infrastructure, which has traditionally been a challenge (29th). Health conditions are improving, though they remain inadequate (104th). Similarly, ICT readiness (112th), security concerns (114th) and human resources (87th) are improving, but remain weak. While further improvements are needed across these dimensions, India is taking small but important steps in the right direction. The T&T sector presents significant opportunities that are yet to be reaped, especially in the provision of tourist service infrastructure (110th), and in terms of additional accommodation capacity and entertainment facilities.

The World Economic Forum’s white paper on India’s tourism industry outlines the country’s $20 billion tourism opportunity that lies untapped. One of its recommendations is the formation of a tourism board. According to the White Paper titled ‘Incredible India 2.0 India’s $20 Billion Tourism Opportunity,’ a proposal to create a tourism board is put forward. It says, ‘India has more than 50 active foreign tourism boards, yet the country does not have its own tourism board. While it has a number of industry associations and state-level bodies, no public-private organisation represents the industry, and these bodies work independently to drive forward their own agenda. The industry is fragmented and hindered by poor coordination between the state and central government as well as within the central government itself. No single ministry is responsible for all the policies affecting the aviation, travel and tourism industry. The Ministries of Civil Aviation, Tourism, Home Affairs, Culture, and Road Transport and Highways, among others, have all been actively involved in the industry’s policies.’ The paper released in September this year goes on to add that this gap must be filled by bringing the public and private sectors together under an empowered and proactive body. ‘To fuel its success, the board would consider the structure, objectives and best practices implemented in other countries, keeping in mind India’s strengths and limitations.’ Speaking on the scope of implementation that this White Paper has, Tiffany Misrahi, Community Lead, Aviation, Travel & Tourism Industries, World Economic Forum, says, “The Minister of Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju, as well as Minister of State Jayant Sinha, along with the Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant, have been actively involved in …

India has moved 12 places up to 40th position from 52nd in Travel and Tourism Competitive Index (TTCI) of World Economic Forum. Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism & Culture, said, “We are pleased to announce that India’s tourism industry has moved up 12 places since 2015, and now occupies 40th rank globally while countries like Japan, China, US, and Switzerland have improved by less than five positions. The ranking is a witness to the several initiatives that have come into effect, such as the liberalisation of visa, formation of tourist helpline 1363, initiation of welcome kits, among many others. Demonetisation has not had much of an impact as we have observed a six-fold growth after it came into action.” He further elaborated that while tourism’s global growth has been 3.9 per cent in 2016, India alone recorded a 10.7 per cent growth, with a CAGR of about 8.4 per cent. The safety and security ranking has also increased by 15 points since the previous year.

PATA CEO Mario Hardy and John Koldowski, Member Tourism Action Group, Thamassat University Thailand, will deliver a seminar on April 5, 2016 at The Park New Delhi, to help prepare tourism stakeholders for future growth, opportunities and challenges. Together with luminaries from UNWTO, WTTC, IATA, ICAO and World Economic Forum amongst others, PATA is engaged in building Tourism Advocacy across the world to ensure that Tourism is at the forefront of strengthening the global Visitor Economy. While Hardy is optimistic about the growing role and contribution of tourism in world economies, he will focus on how markets can get their fair share of this growth as well as address, both present day and futuristic challenges and opportunties. Hardy leads PATA’s charge at the Global Travel Association Coalition. John Koldowski, former Deputy CEO of PATA, is regarded as one of the leading analysts of the travel & tourism sector. He specialises in analysis and interpretation of information regarding movements and trends in the tourism sector based on emerging consumer preferences and destination development. Koldowski will share his in depth knowledge of the impact of global trends on Asia Pacific tourism.