INTERES Invest in Spain

The tourist industry is a key sector in the world economy in this day and age. It is important in terms of economic growth and the creation of jobs worldwide. That is why a healthy tourist industry provides us with major opportunities to improve the quality of life, create jobs and fight poverty, especially in developing countries.

The main objective of the TTCI (Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index) is to quantify the level of competitiveness of the tourist sector in a wide range of national economies (130). To this end a large number of indicators are employed including some of those already used in the “The Global Competitiveness Index” of the WEF, along with others formulated ad hoc for this study.

The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008 was drawn up by the World Economic Forum in close collaboration with Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). Major companies in the sector also participated such as Abercrombie & Kent, Bombardier, British Airways, Carlson, Emirates Airline, Hertz, Silversa Cruises Group, Swiss International Airlines and Travelport.

The companies provided their vision on aspects linked to the tourism industry with a strong focus on environmental sustainability. The tourism industry is increasing its efforts to make a positive contribution to the quality of the environment. To this end it is adopting business strategies that respect the environment. Efforts have also centered on increasing the environmental awareness of tourists in order to encourage them to take on board practices that respect the environment such as compensation through one channel or another for CO2 emissions generated during their trip.

The TTCI is composed of a total of 70 variables and 14 pillars:

1. Norms and regulations
2. Environmental sustainability
3. Citizen security
4. Health and hygiene
5. Priority of the tourist sector
6. Air infrastructures
7. Land infrastructures
8. Tourist infrastructures
9. Technological infrastructures
10. Competitiveness-prices in the tourist sector
11. Human resources
12. Affinity for tourism
13. Natural resources
14. Cultural resources

These pillars are in turn organized into three sub-indexes that describe a wide range of key variables for determining the competitiveness of the tourist sector. The sub-indexes are as follows:

1. Regulatory framework: This first sub-index includes elements generally found within the domain of activities undertaken by the public authorities (norms and regulations, environmental sustainability, citizen security, health and hygiene, and the priority given to the tourist sector).

2. Infrastructures and the nature of the sector: The second sub-index contains elements that are related to the environment and the nature of the tourist sector industry itself as well as the quality of infrastructures (air, land and tourist infrastructures, and competitiveness-price).

3. Human, cultural and natural resources. The last sub-index values the human and cultural resources each country is endowed with (human resources, affinity for tourism, natural and cultural resources).

Spain has the economy with the fifth most competitive tourist sector according to the results provided by the TTCI. Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Australia head the list, while countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and France are in 6th, 7th and 10th places respectively. Portugal, Greece and Italy came in 15th, 22nd and 28th in that order.

Spain benefits from a series of competitive advantages. The most significant are the “endowment of cultural resources” and “tourist infrastructures”, in which the Spain comes in first out of the 130 countries in the study. The section on cultural resources includes variables such as the number of places declared world heritage sites, large stadiums for sporting events and the number of international fairs and exhibitions.

The tourist infrastructures section evaluates factors such as the number of hotel rooms, the presence of major rental car companies and the number of ATMs that accept VISA cards. Other competitive advantages also important but to a lesser extent include the priority of the tourist sector (sixth place) and air infrastructures.

The former includes aspects such as public spending on areas linked to tourism (museums, natural parks, visitor services, etc.) and the participation of the country in the main international tourism fairs held worldwide.