Kalandula waterfalls, Luanda
Angola and Mozambique are among the 10 tourist destinations that are expected to record greater growth in demand for leisure travel in the next decade, according to the latest report on the competitiveness from the World Economic Forum.
Developing and emerging countries are the “stars” of the 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, which concludes that most of them “have significantly improved their performance since 2015” when the previous edition was published.
“Twelve of the 15 countries with the greatest improvements are emerging or developing countries,” the report said. Between 2016 and 2026, according to research by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), India will be the fastest growing destination for leisure travel, followed by Angola, Uganda, Brunei, Thailand, China, Burma, Oman, Mozambique and Vietnam.
The competitiveness assessment includes a total of 136 economies, four of which are Portuguese-speaking, with Angola, due to insufficient data, not included in the analysis, in which it had been included in 2015.
Portugal is the best-placed Portuguese-speaking country, in 14th place, one place above the position reached two years ago, followed by Brazil, in 27th, which also rose one place.
Cape Verde rose three places to 83rd, with higher scores for the “air transport infrastructure” criteria (43rd, with the 2nd highest airport density in relation to the size of the population), ” Environmental sustainability” (44th) and “price competitiveness” (49th).
The lowest scoring criteria were “cultural resources and business travel” (134th) and “natural resources” (127th).
The Cape Verdean government’s program aims to be among the 30 most competitive countries in the world in terms of tourism and among the top five in Africa by 2021.
Mozambique is one of the countries that performed best, eight places higher than in 2015, to 122nd place.
“The strengths of Mozambican competitiveness for tourism and travel continue to be its natural resources and its very open visa policy. This year, the country has risen due to improvements in information and communication technologies, resulting from increased use of mobile phones, reduced taxes and charges on air transport and the attribution of greater value to its natural resources,” the report said.
The tourism competitiveness report also highlights the sector’s great growth potential, in particular due to the expected increase in the world middle class by 2031 – another 3 billion people, most of them in China, India and emerging countries.
“This new purchasing power will give the middle class greater access to travel. Although travel is growing strongly in China, it is estimated that currently only 5% of Chinese citizens hold a passport, “a situation similar to that of other emerging countries, the report said. MDT/Macauhub
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