Despite COVID-19, Korea's Tourism Development Index Achieves All-Time High Ranking... Japan Ranks First

Up 4 Ranks Compared to 2019

A foreign tourist visiting Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul is walking wearing a hanbok and a mask. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Yeeun] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) announced on the 31st that South Korea ranked 15th out of 117 countries evaluated in the Tourism Development Index of the '2021 World Economic Forum'.

This is the highest ranking ever since the World Economic Forum has been publishing tourism-related indices biennially since 2007. It rose by 4 places compared to the 2019 survey.

Since 2007, WEF has published the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index biennially, but from this time, it has been expanded and reorganized into the Tourism Development Index. WEF cited reasons for the reorganization including reflecting environmental changes caused by COVID-19 and strengthening indicators that allow benchmarking with other countries.

Considering this reorganization purpose, 38 of the existing 90 indicators were excluded, and 60 new indicators were added, making a total of 112 indicators. Newly added indicators include climate, environment, greenhouse gases, digital platform utilization, poverty rate, social security expenditure, gender equality, and notably, considering the infectious disease crisis caused by COVID-19, indicators such as accessibility to medical services and infectious disease incidence rates were also added.

2021 WEF Tourism Development Index Overall Ranking. / Photo by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

By country, Japan ranked 1st, the United States 2nd, and Spain 3rd, followed by France and Germany.

Within Asia, South Korea ranked 4th, with Japan (1st), Singapore (9th), China (12th), South Korea (15th), Hong Kong (19th), and the United Arab Emirates (25th) all ranking within the top 30 worldwide.

A policy official from the Ministry stated, "We will analyze the reorganized index more closely to find areas for improvement and devise ways to accelerate the leap forward of our tourism industry based on this."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.