Why in the News?

India has moved up to the 39th position in the World Economic Forum’s latest “Travel & Tourism Development Index (TTDI) 2024, a significant climb from 54th in 2021.
- The United States tops the index, followed by Spain, Japan, France, and Australia.
- Pakistan is ranked 101st.

India’s Performance and Ranking

Price Competitiveness: India is ranked 18th in terms of price competitiveness.
Transport Infrastructure: It stands at 26th for air transport and 25th for ground and port infrastructure.
Resource Ranking: India is 6th in natural resources, 9th in cultural resources, and 9th in non-leisure resources.
TTDI Score Change: India’s overall TTDI score decreased by 2.1% compared to its 2019 level.
Decline in Sustainability Performance: India has seen a decline in sustainability performance relative to 2019 but still performs well due to the prevalence of sustainable long stays among inbound visitors.

The TTDI was compiled in collaboration with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom (UK).
TTDI 2024 is the second edition, evolved from the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) series, a flagship index of WEF that has been in production since 2007.
TTDI 2024 covered 119 countries’ travel and tourism sectors across various factors and policies.

	Description
Establishment	Founded in 1971 by Swiss-German economist Klaus Schwab in Geneva, Switzerland.
Purpose	To bring together public and private sector leaders to address global political, social, and economic issues.
Membership	Introduced in 1975, membership includes the world’s top 1,000 companies.
Scope Expansion	Initially focused on European firms catching up with US management practices, expanded to encompass broader economic and social issues.
Birth of the G20	The concept of the G20, focusing on global finance and comprising 20 countries, emerged from discussions at the WEF in 1998.
Key Reports Published	*Global Competitiveness Report* Global Risks Report *Global Gender Gap Report* Global Human Capital Report Global Information Technology Report Future of Jobs Report Global Enabling Trade Report Trick: Reports beginning with the name ‘Global’.

Sector Recovery: International tourist arrivals and the sector’s contribution to global GDP are expected to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2024.
Regional Recovery: West Asia exceeded its 2019 tourist arrival levels by 20%, while Europe, Africa, and the Americas are recovering robustly, each reaching about 90% of their 2019 levels.

[2019] The Global Competitiveness Report is published by the:

(a) International Monetary Fund

(b) United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

(d) World Bank

The Travel & Tourism Development Index (TTDI) is released by: