Spain retains top place in WEF's tourism competitiveness list

Spain has retained the top ranking in the Travel and Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the English version of the El Pais newspaper reported on Thursday.

The report, published every two years, gives Spain a score of 5.4 out of 7 in its competitiveness index, which looks at a variety of factors such as security, tourist infrastructure, training of tourism staff, as well as natural and cultural resources.

The only sector where Spain scored poorly was in its business environment. But the kingdom still managed to finish ahead of France and Germany, which ranked second and third in the list, after receiving over 75 million tourists in 2016.

The report attributes Spain's success to "its unique offer of both cultural and natural resources, combined with sound tourism service infrastructure, air transport connectivity and strong policy support."

Although Spain is clearly doing most things right in its tourist sector, the World Economic Forum believes the country has benefitted from "the redirected tourism from Middle East and parts of Western Europe, affected by security concerns."

Spain was also top of the list in 2015, but the score of 5.4 this year is still an improvement compared with the 5.31 points it received two years ago.

The report also highlights how Spain has worked hard on a sector which provides over 10 percent of its GDP, given that its ranking in 2011 was only eighth, but fourth in 2013 and topped the ranking two years later.

However, the report warns the possible impact of the economic crisis on public spending in the past eight years.

While admitting that Spain's air infrastructure is among the best in the world, the report says "while Spain's ground transportation is ranked in the top 15 economies, it has started to show signs of initial decline," suggesting that upgrades and modernizations are needed. Endit