Vietnam tourism a big mover on sector development index

Vietnam witnesses highest increase in tourism development index in 2021 (Photo: Vietnam+)

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam’s tourism has jumped a whopping eight places on the 2021 Tourism and Travel Development Index (TTDI), according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Report.

Vietnam’s tourism numbers saw the highest improvement in score, rising by 4.7 percent to leap from 60th to 52nd on the overall index. Indonesia and Saudi Arabia also had great improvements in ranking, with an increase of 3.4 percent to the 32nd place and 2.3 percent to the 33rd place, respectively, the report said.

Some famous destinations in Southeast Asia did not fare as well, such as Thailand, down 1 place, to rank 36th; Malaysia, down 9 places, ranked 38th; and the Philippines, down 2 places, ranked 75th.

The WEF report shows that Vietnam’s improved rankings have resulted from its achievements in COVID-19 prevention, measures of safe and flexible adaptation to the pandemic, and continuous efforts to develop safe tourism.

The report noted that relatively stagnant TTDI results reinforce the difficult situation the Travel and Tourism (T&T) sector faces. On average, TTDI scores increased by just 0.1 percent between 2019 and 2021.

According to the report, aside from the United States (2nd), the top 10 scoring countries are high-income economies in Europe and Eurasia or Asia-Pacific regions.

Japan tops the ranking, with fellow regional economies Australia and Singapore coming in 7th and 9th, respectively. Meanwhile, Italy joined the top 10 (up from 12th in 2019) in 2021.

The remaining top 10 TTDI performers are Spain (3rd), France (4th), Germany (5th), Switzerland (6th) and the United Kingdom (8th).

The Asia-Pacific region is the second-highest performer in the ranking. Of its 20 constituent economies, 12 score above the TTDI average and 13 have improved their scores since 2019.

Many of the more developed economies in the region have world-class transport, tourism, healthcare and ICT infrastructure, high levels of international openness and investment in T&T, conducive business environments, high performance for socio-economic resilience and qualified and productive workforces.

Along with Vietnam, Indonesia (up 12 places) and Saudi Arabia (up 10 places) are the 3 countries with the highest increase in tourism development capacity index. (Photo: Vietnam+)

On the other hand, the region’s less developed economies’ advantage in price competitiveness and rich natural assets are often offset by gaps in the aforementioned factors such as tourism, healthcare and ICT infrastructure, international openness and socio-economic resilience.

However, these gaps are being bridged somewhat as the Asia-Pacific region’s lower-middle-income economies have improved their performance, with particularly strong growth in areas such as ICT readiness.

The TTDI 2021 is an evolution of the 15-year-old Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) series, according to the WEF. Over the past two years, the severe damage to the tourism sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed its approach in that the forum changed the ranking of TTCI to TTDI.

The transformation of the TTCI into the TTDI reflects the index’s increased coverage of T&T development concepts, including sustainability and resilience impact, on T&T growth. It is designed to highlight the sector’s role in broader economic and social development as well as the need for T&T stakeholder collaboration to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, bolster the recovery and deal with future challenges and risks.

Covering a total of 117 economies, the TTDI ranking is based on the assessment of a set of tourism development capacity indexes which consists of five sub-indexes, focusing on evaluating the role of the tourism industry in broader economic and social development.

The report also highlights the particularly important role of digital technology in the reconstruction and recovery of sustainable tourism.

The tourism development capacity index set includes 112 indicators divided into 17 main groups, designed to focus more on assessing the role of the tourism industry in a broader socio-economic environment./.