GlobalData recently released its Tourism Potential Index report, which aims to offer a clear view of the potential for growth of the main developed and emerging national tourism industries;
Johnatan Vandesquille, Analyst, Travel & Tourism, at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, gives more detail about the outcomes of this research:
“According to GlobalData’s analysis of a large number of socioeconomic and tourism factors, Japan leads the ranking with a score of 72.6 out of 100. The country will benefit from organizing high profile events, like the Olympics this year, improving its already excellent travel and tourism infrastructure.
“Spain, Australia and the United Kingdom obtain four stars out of five due to their attractiveness, convenience and business environment, but they have the potential to reach the top mark with an increase of public investments in tourism.
“Safety and health issues as well as limited investments hinder the potential for growth of several continental African countries, with Kenya and South Africa occupying the bottom two places.
“GlobalData’s analysis shows that, overall, the organization of sport events or conferences and exhibitions tend to create a virtuous circle leading to an increase in investments, an improvement of travel tourism infrastructure and, consequently, the attribution of more events. Countries like Cuba and Sri Lanka would benefit from making efforts towards this.
“This strategy has long been adopted by the United Arab Emirates which, despite only obtaining a score of 58.1 due to the concentration of their offerings in a limited number of destinations, invested greatly in its promotion through events. Saudi Arabia will certainly improve its score of 41.1 in the future by following the same example and opening itself to tourism.”