Ukraine has risen 10 places in the World Economic Forum’s the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index in the past two years, reaching 78th position in the 2019 edition, the CFTS portal reports, citing the Ukrainska Pravda publication.
“Ukraine had the fastest rate of TTCI (the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index) score growth in the sub-region, rising 10 places to rank 78th globally. In particular, as the country stabilized and recovered economically, Ukraine drastically improved its business environment (124th to 103rd), safety and security (127th to 107th), international openness (78th to 55th) and overall infrastructure (79th to 73rd)," the report states.
According to the report, Ukraine scored 3.7 points out of 7 in the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index. The closest countries to Ukraine in the index are Jamaica, Sri Lanka, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Namibia.
The highest ranked countries are Spain (5.4 points), France (5.4 points), Germany (5.4 points), Japan (5.4 points), and the United States (5.3 points).
The lowest ranking countries are Yemen (2.4 points), Chad (2.5 points), and Liberia (2.6 points).
According to the report, the results of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019 provides a tool for stakeholders to assess opportunities and anticipate pain points that will unlock, or hinder, the long-term prosperity and positive impact of the sector.
The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index is calculated based on 15 factors (business environment, safety and security, health and hygiene, human resources and labor market, price competitiveness, infrastructure, natural resources, cultural resources, etc.).
Given that international tourist arrivals surpassed 1.4 billion in 2018, beating predictions by two years, governments and industries must work collectively to balance the economic benefits of increasing competitiveness while effectively managing the infrastructure and valuable natural and heritage assets on which the sector depends.
The year 2018 also marked the seventh consecutive year in which the growth in tourism exports (+4%) exceeded the growth in merchandise exports (+3%). Given this rapid pace of growth, the prediction that international arrivals will reach 1.8 billion by 2030 may be conservative
As the CFTS portal reported earlier, the Foreign Affairs Ministry recently announced that Chinese citizens were the leading recipients of Ukrainian electronic visas during the period of January-July 2019.
