India's rank on the World Economic Forum's Travel & Tourism Development Index 2024 has risen to 39th place, with global tourism activities returning to pre-pandemic levels, the annual report showed on Tuesday.
While the US topped the list, India is ranked highest in South Asia and among the lower-middle-income economies, the WEF said.
India was ranked 54th in the previously published index in 2021, though changes made to the index parameters limit its comparability to earlier years.
After the US, Spain, Japan, France and Australia figure among the top five in the 2024 list.
The index, prepared in collaboration with the University of Surrey, showed India is highly price-competitive (18th) and boasts competitive Air Transport (26th) and Ground and Port (25th) infrastructure.
In particular, India's strong Natural (6th), Cultural (9th) and Non-Leisure (9th) Resources help drive travel, and the country is only one of three to score in the top 10 for all the resource pillars, the WEF said.
Moreover, despite a decline compared to 2019, the country still scores well for travel and tourism demand sustainability, especially thanks to more sustainable long stays among inbound visitors.
It further said that as with many economies, travel and tourism enabling conditions in India have been impacted by global inflationary supply-side trends for the sector, with price competitiveness declining, while air transport and tourist services infrastructure are yet to recover to the 2019 level.
As a result, the country's overall TTDI (Travel and Tourism Development Index) score is 2.1 per cent below its 2019 level.
High-income economies in Europe and Asia-Pacific continued to lead the index.
"International tourist arrivals and the travel and tourism sector’s contribution to global GDP are expected to return to pre-pandemic levels this year, driven by the lifting of COVID-19-related travel restrictions and strong pent-up demand," the WEF said.
The Middle East had the highest recovery rates in international tourist arrivals (20 per cent above the 2019 level), while Europe, Africa and the Americas all showed a strong recovery of around 90 per cent in 2023.
The biennial index analysed the travel and tourism sectors of 119 countries around a range of factors and policies.
Germany was ranked 6th, followed by the UK, China, Italy and Switzerland in the top ten.
The results highlighted that high-income economies generally continue to have more favourable conditions for travel and tourism development.
This was helped by conducive business environments, dynamic labour markets, open travel policies, strong transport and tourism infrastructure, and well-developed natural, cultural and non-leisure attractions.
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