No competition for Australia down south
Australia has made significant strides to rank as the most tourism-ready economy in Asia-Pacific, according to a new report.
According to the latest World Economic Forum’s latest Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report which takes into account 141 global economies, Australia has jumped from 13th place in 2011 to 7th in 2015, and was the top performer in the region.
“The index measures factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the travel and tourism sector, which it says contributes to the development and competitiveness of a country,” a BI report stated.
Australia was listed higher than leading economies of Japan ranked 9th, Singapore 11th and Hong Kong which came in 13th place.
According to reports, Australia’s movement up the ranks could be largely attributed to its visa requirement revamps of late, which includes new online visas and e-passport self-processing facilities at major gateway airports for UK and US nationals.
“Now is the time for government and industry to pull together to revamp its tourism industry in order to compete with rival (Chinese) tourist destinations such as Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea, which are all actively vying for the Chinese tourist dollar,” investment broker CLSA said earlier this year to Business Insider.
Meanwhile, new tourism infrastructure in major cities, including a revamp of CBD hotels, was also attributed to growing the Australian tourism industry.
Yesterday, Starwood announced its Aloft brand would make a debut in Sydney’s “Koreatown”, while the city’s $10 billion project is well underway at Barangaroo.
Spain took the top spot in the rankings for the first time, and is currently the third most-visited country in the world with some 60.6 million arrivals, the report stated.
Source: World Economic Forum 2015
Large image credit: Fanpop
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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