The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) released the 2004 World Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Monitor…
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) released the 2004 World Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Monitor. The new statistics reveal that Brazil and India are the most price competitive countries in terms of Travel & Tourism, while Norway is the most competitive in terms of social development for the second year running.
The World Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Monitor tracks a wide range of information, which indicates to what extent a country offers a competitive environment for Travel & Tourism development. Supported by the Christel de Haan Tourism & Travel Research Institute at the University of Nottingham, WTTC’s updated and expanded Monitor aims to highlight the importance of long-term planning and the need to factor Travel & Tourism into all government policy developments and decisions.
WTTC President, Jean-Claude Baumgarten said “We are delighted that the Monitor, now in its fourth year, continues to be a vital tool for governments and researchers to track the impact of policy decisions on Travel & Tourism development.”
The Monitor can be accessed via the WTTC website www.wttc.org and allows the user to compare countries from a selection of over 200, or look at an overview of any particular country. Its ‘traffic light’ system offers an at-a-glance analysis of the data with above average, average and below average results coded green, amber and red respectively.
The Competitiveness Monitor is based on a set of social and economic data that are available and comparable across countries. It is useful for governments, policy makers, Travel & Tourism companies, investors, academics and all other interested parties. The constituent data is grouped into eight categories, as described below.
Price Competitiveness
Tourism Price Competitiveness Index (TPCI) shows the tourism price index across countries. It is computed using the Hotel Price Index and Purchasing Power Parity Index.
Human Tourism
The International Human Tourism Index measures the achievement of human development in terms of tourism activity. The Travel & Tourism Sector takes account of people`s influence in various areas of tourism activity. It includes indices that look at the economic impact of Travel & Tourism demand, consumption, exports, imports, balance, personal and business travel and the numbers of arrivals and departures.
Infrastructure
The Infrastructure Index shows the level of infrastructure development, combining the Road Index, the Sanitation Index and the Water Access Index. The Railway Index is not included because of the limited data available.
Human Resources
Human resources development is an important part of Travel & Tourism. Using data regarding life expectancy, illiteracy rates, education, employment, population, training, skills and gender indicators this indicator shows the competitiveness of the quality of human resources in each country.
Environment
This indicates governments’ awareness towards environmental aspects of development using population density, CO2 emissions and the ratification of environmental treaties as appropriate indicators.
Openness
These indices take into account tourism openness using data including: visa requirements, the extent to which a country is open to international tourism, trade openness and taxes on international trade. This information has often been ignored in past research. It accords with the economic growth literature findings that a country’s openness to trade is a further significant determinant of growth.
Technology
This index shows the advances in modern technological systems and infrastructure, using data regarding telephone mainlines, mobile phones, high technology exports and Internet hosts.
Social
The Social Development indicator uses data from daily newspapers, personal computers, television sets and total crimes recorded.
Top Ten Countries for each competitiveness indicator
Price Competitiveness
- Brazil
- India
- Ethiopia
- Sri Lanka
- Pakistan
- Namibia
- South Africa
- Burkina Faso
- Ghana
- Cambodia
Human Tourism
- Fiji
- Maldives
- Seychelles
- Vanuatu
- Iceland
- Hungary
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Mauritius
- Malaysia
Infrastructure
- Malta
- Singapore
- Barbados
- Belgium
- Netherlands
- Grenada
- Switzerland
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines
- Hungary
- Austria
Environment
- French Polynesia
- Norway
- Finland
- Panama
- Spain
- Luxembourg
- New Zealand
- United Kingdom
- Puerto Rico
- Netherlands
Technology
- San Marino
- Monaco
- Singapore
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Korea, Rep.
- Denmark
- Iceland
- Sweden
Human Resources
- Australia
- Belgium
- Finland
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- Denmark
Openness
- Aruba
- Macao, China
- Hong Kong, China
- Cyprus
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Mongolia
- Mauritania
- Guinea-Bissau
- Seychelles
- Sao Tome and Principe
Social
- Norway
- Japan
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- Hong Kong, China
- Denmark
- United States
- Finland
- Switzerland
- Iceland
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
