Story highlights
World's unfriendliest country towards tourists is Bolivia
Foreign visitors feel most welcome in Iceland and New Zealand
Rankings part of WEF's Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013
Switzerland again the most competitive country
When traveling, some countries just don’t like you. Or at least, it can certainly feel that way.
A new report, put out earlier this month by the World Economic Forum, has ranked which countries roll out the welcome mat to travelers and which give the cold shoulder.
The “Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013” ranked 140 countries according to attractiveness and competitiveness in the travel and tourism industries.
Unwelcoming
Among the extensive analyses, one of the most interesting rankings was how welcome tourists are in each country, under the category “Attitude of population toward foreign visitors.”
And the world’s most unfriendly country, according to the data?
Bolivia took the dubious honor, scoring a 4.1 out of seven on a scale of “very unwelcome” (0) to “very welcome” (7).
Venezuela and the Russian Federation were next.
Interestingly, despite their huge tourist arrivals, South Korea and China tied with four other countries for the eighth least friendly spot.
At the other end of the scale, Iceland and New Zealand were ranked the world’s most welcoming nations for visitors.
You can see a top 10 for friendliest and unfriendliest at the bottom of this article.
Strengths and weaknesses
The “friendly” ranking was just one aspect of the report, analyzing each country’s competitiveness in travel and tourism. That competitiveness is “based on the extent to which they are putting in place the factors and policies to make it attractive to develop the travel and tourism sector.”
In the overall Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, Europe was the top region with the first five positions all held by European countries. Switzerland, Germany and Austria were the top three in that order. Switzerland has headed the ranking since the index began five years ago.
Excellent tourism infrastructure and facilities, business travel appeal, sustainable development of natural resources and rich cultural resources were among the key factors in landing the highest positions in the rankings.
Safety/security, underdeveloped infrastructure and concerns about sustainable development were among the factors bringing down countries’ competitiveness.
Haiti scored the lowest on the competitiveness index.
The United States (6th) topped the combined Americas, Singapore (10th) just pushed out Australia and New Zealand to lead the Asia Pacific region, the United Arab Emirates (28th) was the highest performer in the Middle East and the Seychelles (38th) overtook Mauritius to head Africa.
The report emphasized the need for continued development in the travel and tourism sector particularly for its role in job creation in a relatively stagnant global economy. The industry currently accounts for one in 11 jobs in the world.
The report used data compiled from the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey and hard data from private sources and national and international agencies and organizations such as the ICAO, IATA, UNWTO, World Bank/International Finance Corporation, IUCN, WHO and UNESCO.
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Attitude of population toward foreign visitors
(1 = very unwelcome; 7 = very welcome)
Friendliest
1. Iceland 6.8
2. New Zealand 6.8
3. Morocco 6.7
4. Macedonia, FYR 6.7
5. Austria 6.7
6. Senegal 6.7
7. Portugal 6.6
8. Bosnia and Herzegovina 6.6
9. Ireland 6.6
10. Burkina Faso 6.6
Unfriendliest
1. Bolivia 4.1
2. Venezuela 4.5
3. Russian Federation 5.0
4. Kuwait 5.2
5. Latvia 5.2
6. Iran 5.2
7. Pakistan 5.3
8. Slovak Republic 5.5
9. Bulgaria 5.5
10. Mongolia 5.5
How do your travel experiences compare with this ranking?