Analytics, EU – Baltic States, Rating, Tourism

According to the World Economic Forum report, published every two years, Estonia has dropped from the 30th position to 38th. In the report published in 2011, Estonia was ranked 20th.

The ranking evaluates 141 countries of the world in 14 different categories, which examine how well countries manage their tourism sector and how attractive the country is for tourists.

Estonia achieved the worst results in the cultural resources and business destination category, which assesses how many UNESCO World Heritage objects, oral and mental cultural heritage, sports stadiums there are and how many meetings of international organizations take place. In this area, Estonia received 1.7 points out of 5. The results were not much better in air transport infrastructure category, which resulted in three points.

The safety and security areas were valued highly and in this category, Estonia earned six points.

Spain was the leader of the ranking for the first time. Top ten included also France, Germany, the United States, England, Switzerland, Australia, Italy, Japan and Canada. Also, all of the Scandinavian countries achieved better results than Estonia.

Europe, with six economies in the top 10, continues to  dominate the rankings thanks to its world-class tourism  service infrastructure, excellent health and hygiene conditions, and - notably, thanks to the Schengen Area - high degree of international openness and integration.

However, there are still some significant divides across  the region—not all European countries are making the  most of their cultural resources, prioritizing the T&T sector to respond to new trends, or fostering a dynamic business environment by removing red tape.

In the Americas, the United States (4th) and Canada (10th) are followed by Brazil (28th), Mexico  (30th) and Panama (34th). There are significantly different challenges in the region: in North America, travel facilitation, price competitiveness and continuous infrastructure upgrade are the main priorities in the T&T development agendas; in Central and South America, infrastructure gaps, safety and security and business  environment issues are the main hurdles restraining further T&T development.