The world's most marketing savvy countries in travel
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Skift Take
Some more goodness from the World Economic Forum's annual "Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report" for 2013.
Among the dozens of variables it used to measure the overall competitiveness of countries, one of the measures was how effective are the countries' marketing and branding campaigns in attracting tourists.
That question --among many others -- was put to about 15,000 executives in 140 countries globally, as part of its annual "Executive Opinion Survey", and came back with the results. The results below are a weighted average of the same question asked in early 2011 and again in early 2012.
Some observations: The rankings below shouldn't surprise, at least the top ones.
- UAE deserves the place at the top, being over the top in every kind of marketing for all sectors of its travel economy, whether airlines, hotels, attractions and shopping.
- New Zealand, meanwhile, has succeeded by using the power of its gorgeous locales -- beyond its marketing campaigns -- into movies, especially "Tolkien Tourism." And Air New Zealand has consistently produced winners in its humorous and quirky videos.
- Singapore has been clinically effective with its regional tourism campaigns in China, Australia, India and Indonesia and now Malaysia, or with its theme-based food tourism promotions.
- Iceland deserves a place on the top, as does Switzerland, by the sheer quality of their marketing output.
- Rwanda is a bit of a head scratcher, though its gorillas certainly have the power to attract tourists as the company recovers post-civil war.
- UK makes an appearance at 21, a big improvement over 2011 primarily due to the Olympics, while USA is at 30, a range it has more or less stayed at since 2008.
- The chart below ranks some of the biggest tourism economies, over the last five years of these rankings by WEF:
The full rankings, below
How would you assess the effectiveness of your country’s marketing and branding campaigns to attract tourists? [1 = very ineffective; 7 = very effective] | 2011–2012 weighted average
Rank | Entity | Score |
---|---|---|
1 | United Arab Emirates | 6.39 |
2 | Singapore | 6.17 |
3 | New Zealand | 6.09 |
4 | Austria | 6.02 |
5 | Costa Rica | 5.85 |
6 | Switzerland | 5.84 |
7 | Barbados | 5.78 |
8 | Iceland | 5.73 |
9 | Ireland | 5.67 |
10 | Rwanda | 5.65 |
11 | Thailand | 5.62 |
12 | Kenya | 5.62 |
13 | Jamaica | 5.62 |
14 | Malaysia | 5.61 |
15 | Hong Kong SAR | 5.6 |
16 | Morocco | 5.6 |
17 | Spain | 5.55 |
18 | Seychelles | 5.54 |
19 | Gambia, The | 5.52 |
20 | Montenegro | 5.52 |
21 | United Kingdom | 5.5 |
22 | Mauritius | 5.48 |
23 | Oman | 5.43 |
24 | Puerto Rico | 5.36 |
25 | Uruguay | 5.34 |
26 | Panama | 5.33 |
27 | Canada | 5.31 |
28 | Peru | 5.29 |
29 | France | 5.25 |
30 | United States | 5.25 |
31 | Mali | 5.24 |
32 | Australia | 5.24 |
33 | Taiwan, China | 5.23 |
34 | South Africa | 5.2 |
35 | Malta | 5.17 |
36 | Namibia | 5.13 |
37 | Qatar | 5.12 |
38 | Dominican Republic | 5.11 |
39 | Cyprus | 5.09 |
40 | Netherlands | 5.08 |
41 | Sri Lanka | 5.06 |
42 | China | 5.05 |
43 | Cambodia | 4.98 |
44 | Azerbaijan | 4.97 |
45 | Germany | 4.95 |
46 | Estonia | 4.92 |
47 | Egypt | 4.91 |
48 | Turkey | 4.88 |
49 | Colombia | 4.87 |
50 | Georgia | 4.86 |
51 | Croatia | 4.84 |
52 | Botswana | 4.78 |
53 | Mexico | 4.78 |
54 | Zambia | 4.77 |
55 | Portugal | 4.76 |
56 | Guyana | 4.76 |
57 | Bahrain | 4.76 |
58 | Jordan | 4.69 |
59 | Sweden | 4.67 |
60 | Japan | 4.56 |
61 | Albania | 4.54 |
62 | Belgium | 4.53 |
63 | Uganda | 4.51 |
64 | Burkina Faso | 4.51 |
65 | Brunei Darussalam | 4.5 |
66 | Ecuador | 4.49 |
67 | Finland | 4.49 |
68 | Luxembourg | 4.49 |
69 | Korea, Rep. | 4.44 |
70 | Saudi Arabia | 4.43 |
71 | Chile | 4.42 |
72 | India | 4.42 |
73 | Israel | 4.4 |
74 | Senegal | 4.38 |
75 | Indonesia | 4.36 |
76 | Norway | 4.34 |
77 | Argentina | 4.31 |
78 | Nepal | 4.3 |
79 | Swaziland | 4.26 |
80 | Tanzania | 4.23 |
81 | Slovenia | 4.22 |
82 | Honduras | 4.21 |
83 | Mozambique | 4.18 |
84 | Macedonia, FYR | 4.17 |
85 | Philippines | 4.16 |
86 | Denmark | 4.16 |
87 | Nicaragua | 4.16 |
88 | Ghana | 4.15 |
89 | Cape Verde | 4.14 |
90 | Latvia | 4.09 |
91 | Zimbabwe | 4.08 |
92 | Lebanon | 4.05 |
93 | Nigeria | 4.04 |
94 | Madagascar | 4.04 |
95 | Ethiopia | 3.98 |
96 | Czech Republic | 3.95 |
97 | Vietnam | 3.94 |
98 | Malawi | 3.93 |
99 | Greece | 3.93 |
100 | Suriname | 3.91 |
101 | El Salvador | 3.9 |
102 | Brazil | 3.85 |
103 | Bulgaria | 3.8 |
104 | Poland | 3.78 |
105 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 3.78 |
106 | Armenia | 3.76 |
107 | Tajikistan | 3.76 |
108 | Hungary | 3.75 |
109 | Ukraine | 3.73 |
110 | Serbia | 3.66 |
111 | Guatemala | 3.65 |
112 | Cameroon | 3.64 |
113 | Lesotho | 3.64 |
114 | Lithuania | 3.52 |
115 | Trinidad and Tobago | 3.51 |
116 | Italy | 3.5 |
117 | Sierra Leone | 3.46 |
118 | Chad | 3.46 |
119 | Paraguay | 3.46 |
120 | Iran, Islamic Rep. | 3.4 |
121 | Benin | 3.38 |
122 | Bolivia | 3.35 |
123 | Romania | 3.26 |
124 | Mauritania | 3.21 |
125 | Kazakhstan | 3.18 |
126 | Russian Federation | 3.18 |
127 | Côte d'Ivoire | 3.16 |
128 | Bangladesh | 3.16 |
129 | Burundi | 3.16 |
130 | Guinea | 3.12 |
131 | Mongolia | 3.07 |
132 | Kyrgyz Republic | 3.07 |
133 | Yemen | 3.03 |
134 | Pakistan | 2.93 |
135 | Haiti | 2.81 |
136 | Slovak Republic | 2.79 |
137 | Moldova | 2.79 |
138 | Kuwait | 2.34 |
139 | Algeria | 2.15 |
140 | Venezuela | 2.05 |
Angola | ||
Timor-Leste | ||
Syria | ||
Libya | ||
Tunisia |