Skift Take

Market perceptions vs press hype (read BrandUSA) are two different things in travel and tourism marketing. Lots of lessons to learn for U.S. and other more mature economies.

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:

Screen Shot 2013-03-17 at 9.09.39 PM

 

 

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

 

 

 

smartphone

The Daily Newsletter

Our daily coverage of the global travel industry. Written by editors and analysts from across Skift’s brands.

Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch

Tags: branding, marketing

Photo credit: Dubai and UAE have been very effective in marketing itself to the world, using its airlines, hotels, attractions, all over the top, to burnish its image in consumers minds.

Up Next

Loading next stories