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Business Desk

The Statesman

Publication Date : 08-03-2013

India has moved up three notches to the 65th rank out of 140 countries in terms of travel and tourism industry competitiveness, a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has said.

According to the fifth travel and tourism competitiveness report by WEF, India has been ranked in the 11th place in the region and 65th overall, gaining three positions since the last edition. “As with China, India is well assessed for its natural resources (ranked 9th) and cultural resources (24th), with many natural and cultural World Heritage sites, rich fauna, many fairs and exhibitions, and strong creative industries,” the report said.

Among the other emerging market economies, however, India was ranked below its peers, as Brazil was placed in the 51th position, Russia 63rd and China enjoyed a rank as high as 45. “India also has quite good air transport (ranked 39th), particularly given the country's stage of development, and reasonable ground transport infrastructure (ranked 42nd), although the quality of roads and of ports require further improvement,” the report said.

The WEF report noted India is also a relatively price competitive destination (20th), even in the regional context. The report, however, said some aspects of  its tourism infrastructure remain somewhat underdeveloped, with very few hotel rooms per capita by international comparison and low ATM penetration. Another area of concern is the policy environment, which is ranked 125th because of the long time and high cost required to start a business and a restrictive visa policy.

Other areas requiring attention are health and hygiene standards (109th) and the country's human resources base. Switzerland, Germany and Austria lead the world in terms of their travel and tourism industry competitiveness. Others in the top ten list are Spain (4th), United Kingdom (5th), United States (6th), France (7th), Canada (8th), Sweden (9th) and Singapore (10th).