ISLAMABAD: Pakistan remains the least competitive country in South Asia when it comes to travel and tourism, according to the Competitive Travel and Tourism Report published by the World Economic Forum on Wednesday.
The report placed Pakistan at the bottom of the Asia-Pacific Competitive Travel and Tourism (T&T) 2019 Ranking. Pakistan ranked 121 this year out of 140 countries against 124 in 2017.
The report emphasized that Pakistan still required a substantial improvement in competitiveness in order to rise and leave the lower quartile.
In its pillar snapshot for the Asia-Pacific region, the report said that Pakistan was the best country in terms of human resources and labor market, while Singapore was the top scorer in this area.
Japan continues to be Asia's most competitive travel and tourism economy, ranking fourth worldwide, and recently witnessed a boom in international tourist arrivals and arrivals. China is by far the largest travel and tourism economy in Asia-Pacific and the 13th most competitive worldwide. The Philippines has shown an improvement, climbing four places to be ranked 75th worldwide.
S. Asia is the only subregion in Asia-Pacific that scored below the world average in T&T competitiveness. Its greatest advantage in relation to the world average comes from its competitiveness of prices and natural and cultural resources.
According to the report, South Asia occupies a low place in infrastructure, with an underdeveloped tourism services infrastructure that represents its greatest relative disadvantage. The low availability of ICT, international openness, safety and health and hygiene are other key weaknesses.
However, S. Asia also experienced one of the fastest improvement rates since the last edition of the report, including the largest subregional percentage jump in scores in preparation for ICT.
Posted on Dawn, September 5, 2019
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1503591/pakistan-ranked-least-competitive-country-in-travel-tourism-in-south-asia
