By Jung Min-ho
Korea ranked 19th in global rankings of travel and tourism competitiveness, up 10 notches from a previous report.
According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Tuesday, Korea improved in 11 out of 14 areas, including International Openness and Prioritization of Travel and Tourism. But the country lost ground in Health and Hygiene, Human Resources and the Labor Market, and Natural Resources.
Spain, France and Germany remained the top tourist destinations out of 136 countries, in the biennial report by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The others in the top 10 were Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Italy, Canada and Switzerland.
Korea ranked 42nd in 2007 and has been climbing since. The ministry believes the result is attributed to the easing of regulations on tourism and overall services improvements.
The report measures the set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of each nation’s travel and tourism sector.
Travel and tourism makes up 10 percent of the global GDP today. According to the WEF, there is increasing demand from emerging markets and technology are quickly changing the tourism industry.