Thursday, March 05, 2009

Croatia in the top 35 countries in competitive tourism

Croatia remains in 34th place this year among 133 countries in tourism competitiveness.

The new World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report, called "Managing in a Time of Turbulence," provides the country rankings.

This year’s report summarises the difficulties the industry currently faces, as well as the effect of energy prices on tourism and price competitiveness.

Croatia is still on the same level as Italy and Malta and ahead of some European countries such as Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

The most-competitive tourism countries are again Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

The rankings are based on the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), which measures the different regulatory and business-related issues that have been identified as levers for improving travel and tourism competitiveness in countries around the world.

Croatia received low ratings for price competitiveness, air-price competitiveness, air-travel infrastructure and the education and availability of professional staff but extremely good marks for tourism infrastructure.

Commenting on the report, National Competitiveness Council head Darko Marinac said Croatia needed more than ever to think carefully about its price competitiveness in tourism in order to keep its returning guests and to attract new ones.

Marinac added: "On the other hand, Croatia needs to raise the quality of the domestic tourism product in order to balance value and price."


Article Source: http://www.croatiantimes.com/index.php?id=2972