Tourism: Spain the best country, Swiss Alps slide in the ranking

In a new study of tourist-friendly countries released Thursday by the World Economic Forum (WEF), European economies dominated the top-10 rankings, with Spain leading the pack, indicating the region was well placed to attract overseas visitors and create tourism jobs.

France took second place, followed by Germany, while the U.K. placed fifth, Italy ranked eighth and Switzerland was tenth.

The Alpine country lost 4 positions referred last survey in 2015. The Swiss index of tourism competitiveness stood at 4.9 on a scale that goes from 1 to 7, while two yeras ago, it was equal to 5 points. Switzerland lost ground (43rd position), especially in the exploitation of natural resources, while it remains the number one in the global ranking relative sustainable environment.

"Despite increased fear of terrorism, tourism performance of countries such as France and Germany have not declined significantly, confirming a strong resilience of the tourism sector to security shocks in the presence of strong institutions and sound fundamentals," WEF said.

WEF's "Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report," which is published every two years, measures the relative health of 136 leading countries’ tourism sectors. It explained that the global travel and tourism sector accounts for 10 per cent of global GDP, grows faster than other sectors, and provides one in 10 jobs.

"Underpinning this growth is the increasing accessibility and affordability of travel, although environmental challenges remain and many countries are underperforming in making technological strides," the WEF said.

Still, Europe's cultural richness, excellent tourism service infrastructure, strong health conditions, international openness and general sense of perceived safety have trumped terror concerns, WEF said.

The organisation based its rankings on various factors, including safety, health, human resources, price competitiveness, infrastructure, and culture.

Europe remains the world's largest travel and tourism market, having attracted 620 million of the 1.2 billion international visitors in 2016, followed by Asia-Pacific, WEF said.

Japan, Asia's highest ranking nation, came in fourth, while Australia took seventh place. Hong Kong ranked eleventh, Singapore was thirteenth, and China took the fifteenth spot.

"Asia-Pacific can rely on outstanding natural resources, a highly-qualified labor force and governments that understand the potential and support the sector. Yet, environmental sustainability, which is paramount to the continued growth of the industry, remains a concern.