ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has jumped six spots on the International Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI), the World Economic Forum (WEF) said in its latest report, with the South Asian nation making a significant improvement in the sector.
The index measures the set of factors and policies that enable sustainable and resilient development of travel and tourism sector, which in turn contributes to the development of a country.
The WEF covered 117 economies for its 2021 report, with Pakistan ranking among the lower-middle-income countries improving the most since 2019.
In this photograph taken on October 7, 2017, tourists ride on a horse buggy as they look at the historic Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan. (AFP/File)
“As mentioned, Japan is the top performer in both the APAC region and globally, with Australia (7th) and Singapore (9th) ranking in the global top 10,” the WEF report read.
“However, it is lower-middle-income economies such as Viet Nam (+4.7 percent, 60th to 52nd), Indonesia (+3.4 percent, 44th to 32nd) and Pakistan (+2.9 percent, 89th to 83rd) that have improved their TTDI scores the most since 2019.”
China, which ranks 12th on the TTDI, has the region’s largest travel and tourism economy, while the Philippines, which depended the most on tourism for its GDP in 2020, ranks 75th, according to the report. India is the top scorer in South Asia on 54th position globally.
In 2019, tourism accounted for a tenth of global GDP and jobs but the coronavirus pandemic decimated the $9.6 trillion industry, halving its output value and leaving 62 million people jobless.
The global travel and tourism sector is projected to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023 and grow at a rate that will outpace global gross domestic product (GDP) growth, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) said in April.
The industry is expected to post an annual average growth rate of 5.8 percent from 2022 to 2032 versus the 2.7 percent increase in global GDP, and create 126 million new jobs.
