Tuesday 16th May, 2017
Trinidad and Tobago now ranks third in the Caribbean on the World Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2017, however it has fallen by four points from 69 in 2015 to 73rd in 2017.
Placing 73rd out of 136 countries with a score of 3.67, Trinidad and Tobago has high scores of 5.14 in the categories Health and Hygiene and 4.8 in ICT Readiness.
However, the country scored 4.09 in the category of Safety and Security, 3.69 in Prioritisation of Travel and Tourism, 2.71 in Natural Resources, and a dismal 1.31 in Cultural Resources and Business Capital.
Placing first in the Caribbean is Barbados with a global rank of 58 and score of 3.91, a drop of 12 points, and Jamaica with a global rank of 69 and score of 3.71, a seven-point increase since 2015.
Spain placed first on the index with a score of 5.43, followed by France (5.32), Germany (5.28), Japan (5.26), the United Kingdom (5.20) and the US in sixth place (5.12).
“While North America should enhance its price competitiveness, environmental sustainability and infrastructure; Central and South American nations should continue improving their safety and security, create more enabling environments for business and develop their infrastructure to enhance connectivity.”