World Economic Forum (WEF) has released a ranking of countries in the Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) where Pakistan’s ranking is surprisingly low.
Pakistan has been ranked 101 out of 119 countries, classified as a lower-middle-income economy and is part of the Asia-Pacific regional group.
The top 30 countries in the TTDI accounted for over 75 percent of the travel and tourism industry GDP in 2022, and 70 percent of GDP growth between 2020 and 2022.
However, the lower half of the list consisted of African countries.
Ranking among South Asia
In South-East Asia, Pakistan ranks slightly above Nepal (105) and Bangladesh (109), but far below India (39) and Sri Lanka (76).
Ranking among Middle Eastern Countries
Within the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates topped the rankings at 18, followed by Saudi Arabia (41), Qatar, (53) and Bahrain (18). The United States topped the overall list, followed by Spain, Japan, and France. The remainder of the top ten list comprised Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, China, Italy, and Switzerland.
WEF report highlighted challenges being faced within the industry. Global inflation, global conflict, and environmental issues such as wildfires in tourist destinations, have generated additional pressure.
However, the report predicts that in the coming years, the travel and tourism industry will bear the brunt of geopolitical tensions, macroeconomic uncertainty, and possible challenges brought on by artificial intelligence.
Whilst developing economies like Pakistan have shown improvement in TTDI scores, many areas still need investment in enabling tourism conditions.
