Colombia Travel & Tourism White Paper 2010

COMMITTED TO IMPROVING THE STATE OF THE WORLD
Gauging the Competitiveness of the Travel & Tourism Sector in Colombia

Insights from the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index
White Paper
Irene Mia, World Economic Forum Eva Trujillo Herrera, World Economic Forum Thea Chiesa, World Economic Forum Mariana Torres Montoya, World Economic Forum
This White Paper is published by the World Economic Forum within the framework of the Global Competitiveness Network.
Professor Klaus Schwab Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum Robert Greenhill Chief Business Officer, World Economic Forum
GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS NETWORK Jennifer Blanke, Head of the Global Competitiveness Network and Senior Economist Ciara Browne, Associate Director Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz, Director and Senior Economist Thierry Geiger, Associate Director and Economist, Global Leadership Fellow Irene Mia, Director and Senior Economist Carissa Sahli, Team Coordinator Pearl Samandari, Community Manager Eva Trujillo Herrera, Research Assistant
MOBILITY INDUSTRIES John Moavenzadeh, Senior Director, Head of Sustainable Mobility and Strategy Stefano Ammirati, Associate Director, Head of Automotive Industry Julia Bennett, Team Coordinator Thea Chiesa, Associate Director, Head of Aviation, Travel & Tourism Industries Sean Doherty, Associate Director, Head of Logistics & Transport Industries Katerina Soulounia, Team Coordinator Mariana Torres Montoya, Community Manager A special thank you to Hope Steele for her superb editing work and Neil Weinberg for his excellent graphic design and layout. World Economic Forum 91-93 route de la Capite CH-1223 Cologny/Geneva Switzerland Tel.: +41 (0)22 869 1212 Fax: +41 (0) 22 786 2744 E-mail: contact@weforum.org www.weforum.org 2010 World Economic Forum All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise without the prior permission of the World Economic Forum. ISBN-13: 978-92-95044-86-9 ISBN-10: 92-95044-86-X
Contents
Part 1: Gauging the Competitiveness of the Travel & Tourism Sector in Colombia
by Irene Mia, Eva Trujillo Herrera, Thea Chiesa, and Mariana Torres Montoya, World Economic Forum
Technical Appendix
30
Part 2: Country Profiles

How to Read the Country Profiles
33
35
iii
List of Countries 37
Colombia's Country Profile
38
Comparator Country Profiles
40
Brazil ........................................................................................40 Chile .........................................................................................42 Costa Rica ................................................................................44 Ecuador ....................................................................................46 Egypt........................................................................................48 Peru..........................................................................................50 South Africa .............................................................................52 Thailand....................................................................................54
Technical Notes and Sources
57
Acknowledgments
63
Part 1
Gauging the Competitiveness of the Travel & Tourism Sector in Colombia

IRENE MIA, World Economic Forum EVA TRUJILLO HERRERA, World Economic Forum THEA CHIESA, World Economic Forum MARIANA TORRES MONTOYA, World Economic Forum
Recent decades have witnessed a stellar increase in tourism activities across the world, with the Travel & Tourism (T&T) sector acquiring an increasingly important weight in the global economy and in many national competitiveness and development strategies.1 International tourist arrivals reached the record number of 924 million in 2008 (up from just 20 million in 1950), while the sectors direct and indirect activities accounted for an estimated 9.9 percent of global GDP, 10.9 percent of world exports, and 9.4 percent of world investment.2 As such data suggest, the T&T industry has become one of the main industries in many countries, and it is one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in terms of foreign exchange earnings and job creation according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). In addition, the T&T sector can play a major role in poverty reduction efforts and contribute to improving the overall country brand for economies that have image problems due to recent histories of political instability, civil unrest, and natural disasters, among other elements. Tourism represents a sector of enormous potential for Colombia given the countrys extraordinary biodiversity, natural beauty, and cultural richness.3 Now that impressive strides toward social stability have been taken, tourism can play a key role in enhancing competitiveness, sustaining growth, and increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) in the aftermath of the major global economic crisis that began in 2008. In that year, the T&T sector represented only 1.9 percent and 1.8 percent of Colombias GDP and total employment, respectively.4 While this compares well with some relevant comparators in the region, it is a far cry from countries with similar features when it comes to tourism, such as Egypt or Thailand (see Table 1). Such a comparison provides a sense of the opportunities for growth that lie in this area, and it is particularly pertinent given that tourists in Colombia tend to spend a great deal. Indeed, the countrys US$1,477 per tourist makes Colombia the most lucrative tourism sector per tourist within the entire comparator group in Table 1. Moreover, the number of international arrivals doubled between 2003 (624,909) and 2009 (1,354,000), as shown in Figure 1, while by 2007 the tourism sector had become Colombias third biggest export sector, after oil and coal.5 This points to the sectors recent dynamism and to a significant potential for further development. Colombias government is well aware of the importance of the T&T sector for national growth and development and has been increasingly integrating the sector into the general competitiveness agenda. Concomitantly, since the adoption of a country-brand strategy Colombia es pasin (Colombia is passion) in 2005, greater resources have been allocated to tourism promotion, financed through the creation of a tourism tax, among other initiatives. Further, an international promotion
Table 1: Key Indicators for T&T: Colombia and relevant comparators, 2009
Tourism industry GDP
International tourist arrivals (thousands) International tourism receipts (US$ millions) Tourism receipts per tourist (US$) US$ millions Percent total
Tourism industry employment

Jobs (thousands) Percent total
Country
Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Ecuador Egypt Peru South Africa Thailand
5,050 2,713 1,354 1,923 970 11,914 2,140 7,012 14,091
5,305 1,568 2,000 2,075 742 10,755 2,046 7,543 15,901
1,050 578 1,477 1,079 765 903 956 1,076 1,128
38,847 2,242 4,194 1,695 931 14,033 3,754 8,481 16,388
2.4 1.3 1.8 5.8 1.6 7.4 2.9 2.9 6.2
2,179 108 341 119 83 1,448 367 389 1,869
2.3 1.6 1.6 6.0 1.4 6.3 2.8 2.9 4.9
Source: United Nations World Tourism Organization; World Travel & Tourism Council, TSA research 2010.
campaign entitled Colombia, el riesgo es que te quieras quedar (Colombia, the risk is that you will want to stay) was launched in 2007.6 The governments objective is to make Colombia the fifth-largest tourist destination in Latin Americaand to double the T&T sectors contribution to national GDPby 2010. In this context, an assessment of Colombias competitive strengths and weaknesses with respect to its T&T sector appears particularly timely. It could assist policymakers and all relevant national stakeholders to prioritize policies and design effective strategies in order to develop the T&T sector to its full potential and transform it into a lever of enhanced competitiveness and prosperity for the benefit of all Colombians. The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) represents a powerful tool that can shed light on the complex sets of factors and policies that make it attractive to develop the T&T sector in a given country.7 It can therefore effectively support the process of taking stock of Colombias performance in promoting its T&T sector as well as in identifying existing hurdles and obstacles hindering its full development. This White Paper will provide a comprehensive snapshot of the competitiveness landscape of Colombias T&T sector, building on the findings of the most recent TTCI, featured in the World Economic Forums Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009. Through the lens of the TTCI, areas that should be given priority in the design of national strategies toward increased T&T competitiveness will be highlighted. After a brief outline of the TTCI methodological framework, the paper will focus on Colombias performance in the 14 pillars of T&T competitiveness included in the Index, based on the results of the most recent TTCI computation. Comparisons with relevant countries and regions will be carried out to set Colombias results into a more textured context.
A framework for measuring T&T competitiveness: The TTCI 2009 Although the T&T sector is an important driver of national growth and prosperity, it has not yet been developed to its full potential in many countries. Therefore, in 2007 the World Economic Forum, together with its partners from the aviation, travel, and tourism industries and other industry experts, embarked on a research project aimed at identifying the regulatory and business environment impediments and weaknesses preventing countries from building competitive T&T sectors.8 The resulting TTCI measures the factors and policies that make it attractive to develop the T&T sector in different countries. It provides a unique methodological framework mapping out the factors enabling T&T competitiveness and, through its subindexes, pillars, and variables, offers a tool for policymakers and all relevant stakeholders to identify strengths and shortcomings related to the national T&T environment. The TTCI also provides an opportunity to identify priority areas when drafting strategies and policies aimed at enhanced T&T competitiveness. The Indexs methodological framework (Figure 2) identifies 14 drivers or pillars of T&T competitiveness, composed of 73 individual variables overall. The pillars are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Policy rules and regulations Environmental sustainability Safety and security Health and hygiene Prioritization of Travel & Tourism Air transport infrastructure Ground transport infrastructure Tourism infrastructure Information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure Price competitiveness in the T&T industry Human resources Affinity for Travel & Tourism Natural resources Cultural resources
Figure 1: Colombias international tourist arrivals, 19952009
2,000
International tourist arrivals (thousands)
1,500
1,000
500
0 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Source: United Nations World Tourism Organization.
Figure 2: The TTCI methodological framework and the 14 pillars of T&T competitiveness
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index

Subindex A: T&T regulatory framework Subindex B: T&T business environment and infrastructure Subindex C: T&T human, cultural, and natural resources
Policy rules and regulations
Air transport infrastructure
Human resources
Environmental sustainability
Ground transport infrastructure
Affinity for Travel & Tourism
Safety and security
Tourism infrastructure
Natural resources
Health and hygiene Prioritization of Travel & Tourism
ICT infrastructure Price competitiveness in the T&T industry
Cultural resources
Source: World Economic Forum, 2009.
Figure 3: Hard and Survey data composition of the TTCI 2009
G Survey data, 28 variables (38%) G Hard data, 45 variables (62%)
6 The 14 pillars are organized into three subindexes that deal with: policy-related dimensions, by and large under the purview of government (the T&T regulatory framework subindex); aspects of the countrys hard infrastructure and business environment (the T&T business environment and infrastructure subindex); and aspects of the countrys soft assets, including human, cultural, and natural resources (the T&T human, cultural, and natural resources subindex). At each level of aggregation of the TTCI, the final score is a simple average of the composing elements: this applies to the scores of the TTCI as well as its composing subindexes and pillars. The underlying assumption is that all components have a similar importance for the competitiveness of the T&T sector of a given country. In line with the World Economic Forums competitiveness work, the Index is made up of a mixture of hard data and survey data, capturing both quantitative and qualitative elements relevant for T&T competitiveness. As shown in Figure 3, the TTCI is intensive in hard data: of the 73 variables, 45 are hard data obtained by publicly available sources, including international organizations (e.g., IATA, the IUCN, the UNWTO, the WTTC, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], and the World Health Organization), as well as T&T institutions and experts (e.g., the International Congress and Convention Association [ICCA], Booz & Company, Deloitte, and Visa). The remaining 28 variables come from the World Economic Forums Executive Opinion Survey, carried out every year in each country covered by the Report to provide insights on important dimensions of the T&T competitiveness environment for which no hard data are available, or at least not for a sufficient number of countries. The Survey was compiled by over 12,000 top business executives in 2008 across more than 130 economies. The Survey allows us to capture key T&T competitiveness aspects such as the degree of prioritization of the T&T sector in the government agenda, the sustainability of the development of the T&T industry, and national attitudes toward foreign visitors, among other factors.9 The Technical Appendix at the end of this paper provides a full description of the variables, subindexes, and pillars composing the TTCI as well as of the computation methodology.
Figure 4: Colombias performance in the TTCI, 2008 and 2009
I 2009 Policy rules and regulations Environmental sustainability Safety and security Health and hygiene Prioritization of Travel & Tourism Air transport infrastructure Ground transport infrastructure Tourism infrastructure ICT infrastructure Price competitiveness in the T&T industry Human capital Affinity for Travel & Tourism Natural resources Cultural resources
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
I 2008
Source: World Economic Forum, 2008, 2009.
Measuring the competitiveness of Colombias T&T sector in an international context: The findings of the TTCI 2009 The analysis carried out in this section builds on the results of the latest available TTCI computation, featured in The Travel &Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009. In order to place Colombias strengths and weaknesses into context, comparisons are made with selected countries from the region (i.e., Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru), and the average for Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, other relevant economies are included from outside the region (i.e., Egypt, South Africa, and Thailand); these either share features similar to Colombias or have faced similar challenges and/or present elements of interest in their T&T landscapes and strategies. Table 1 benchmarks Colombias current performance on a number of key T&T indicators with respect to the comparator group. As noted above, the first three columns of the table highlight the fact that, although Colombias tourist arrivals are still low compared with international peers such as Egypt and Thailand, its T&T sector is the most lucrative in the sample (each tourist to Colombia brings in US$1,477, compared with US$578 for the least lucrative country within the comparator group, Chile). Similarly, the remaining four columns demonstrate the large untapped potential of the T&T industry for the country in terms of its overall contribution to GDP and employment: at present, the industry represents only 1.9 and 1.6 percent of total
GDP and employment. These figures compare fairly poorly with the T&T industry contribution to GDP and employment in Egypt, Thailand, or Costa Rica. In sum, all data above show that Colombia is not benefiting from the tourism industry to the extent that one might expect given the countrys important natural and cultural assets, as well as its diverse and favorable geographical location. Despite the important potential for cultural and environmental tourism development in the country, a number of obstacles are hindering the further development of the T&T sector. The TTCI provides insight into the T&T competitiveness landscape in Colombia, highlighting those areas requiring attention to improve the outlook for the sector going forward. Figure 4 provides a snapshot of Colombias performance in 2008 and 2009 by pillar,10 while Tables 2 through 5 compare Colombias rankings and scores with those of selected comparators in the 2009 TTCI and each composing subindex and pillar. Last but not least, Table 6 features the TTCI heatmap, which complements and expands on the information provided in Tables 2 through 5 by indicating the relative distance of Colombias performance from the comparators in each pillar as measured by the differences in score (Table 6a) and rank (Table 6b). Blue- and grayshaded cells indicate that Colombia fares better or worse than the specific comparator, respectively: the darker the shading, the greater the difference in performance. No shading, in turn, signals that there is no significant difference with the comparator.
Table 2: TTCI 2009: Colombia and selected comparators

TTCI 2009 Country Rank Score T&T regulatory framework Rank Score T&T business environment and infrastructure Rank Score T&T human, cultural, and natural resources Rank Score
Thailand Costa Rica Brazil Chile South Africa Egypt Colombia Peru Ecuador Latin America and the Caribbean
39 42 45 57 61 64 72 74 96
4.45 4.42 4.35 4.18 4.10 4.09 3.89 3.88 3.62 3.91
70 48 95 49 82 52 91 89 103
4.46 4.94 4.12 4.87 4.31 4.84 4.18 4.24 4.01 4.36
40 55 69 58 52 65 88 92 97
4.14 3.77 3.53 3.76 3.81 3.59 3.08 2.96 2.91 3.34
19 31 4 64 49 73 34 33 62
4.74 4.54 5.40 3.92 4.17 3.84 4.43 4.43 3.93 4.01
Table 3: T&T regulatory framework: Colombia and selected comparators

T&T REGULATORY FRAMEWORK Country Rank Score 1. Policy rules and regulations Rank Score 2. Environmental sustainability Rank Score 3. Safety and security Rank Score 4. Health and hygiene Rank Score 5. Prioritization of Travel & Tourism Rank Score
Costa Rica Chile Egypt Thailand South Africa Peru Colombia Brazil Ecuador
48 49 52 70 82 89 91 95 103
4.94 4.87 4.84 4.46 4.31 4.24 4.18 4.12 4.01 4.36
48 19 55 62 36 63 60 94 126
4.75 5.24 4.60 4.48 4.96 4.47 4.53 3.97 3.20 4.29
27 64 103 99 44 85 84 33 86
5.13 4.56 4.08 4.13 4.83 4.26 4.26 4.96 4.24 4.41
72 38 67 118 128 108 125 130 99
5.08 5.79 5.13 3.94 3.51 4.26 3.72 3.36 4.54 4.58
65 66 64 71 94 96 86 80 73
4.59 4.58 4.59 4.42 3.80 3.56 4.07 4.20 4.40 4.24
29 77 9 22 60 53 67 84 106
5.16 4.15 5.81 5.34 4.45 4.64 4.30 4.11 3.65 4.31
Latin America and the Caribbean
Table 4: T&T business environment and infrastructure: Colombia and selected comparators
T&T BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE Country Rank Score 6. Air transport infrastructure Rank Score 7. Ground transport infrastructure Rank Score 8. Tourism infrastructure Rank Score 9. ICT infrastructure Rank Score 10. Price competitiveness in T&T industry Rank Score
Thailand South Africa Costa Rica Chile Egypt Brazil Colombia Peru Ecuador Latin America and the Caribbean
40 52 55 58 65 69 88 92 97
4.14 3.81 3.77 3.76 3.59 3.53 3.08 2.96 2.91 3.34
25 43 42 51 58 46 65 92 86
4.54 3.87 3.88 3.51 3.32 3.76 3.06 2.58 2.67 3.09
56 64 103 57 79 110 108 125 119
3.82 3.58 2.72 3.80 3.19 2.59 2.66 2.24 2.36 3.06
39 46 33 69 74 45 93 78 89
4.27 3.96 4.48 3.21 2.97 4.00 2.03 2.50 2.10 2.90
71 80 61 49 84 60 65 81 85
2.74 2.58 2.96 3.41 2.43 3.06 2.90 2.52 2.41 2.79
19 38 57 53 1 91 66 47 40
5.35 5.03 4.82 4.86 6.02 4.24 4.74 4.94 5.03 4.87
Table 5: T&T human, cultural, and natural resources: Colombia and selected comparators
T&T HUMAN, CULTURAL, AND NATURAL RESOURCES Country Rank Score 11. Human capital Rank Score 12. Affinity for Travel & Tourism Rank Score 13. Natural resources Rank Score 14. Cultural resources Rank Score
Brazil Thailand Costa Rica Peru Colombia South Africa Ecuador Chile Egypt Latin America and the Caribbean
4 19 31 33 34 49 62 64 73
5.40 4.74 4.54 4.43 4.43 4.17 3.93 3.92 3.84 4.01
55 57 24 71 64 112 98 47 83
5.17 5.16 5.63 5.03 5.09 4.23 4.59 5.23 4.90 4.97
108 22 27 85 104 43 117 111 20
4.41 5.41 5.36 4.57 4.44 5.00 4.24 4.39 5.44 4.74
2 24 6 8 5 22 19 63 109
6.37 4.54 5.42 5.21 5.51 4.59 4.71 3.20 2.49 4.01
14 33 89 42 56 45 71 48 60
5.64 3.84 1.77 2.92 2.66 2.87 2.16 2.87 2.53 2.33
Table 6: The TCCI heatmap for Colombia

Subindex B: T&T business environment and infrastructure
Score difference I < 1.0 I < 0.5 I < 0.1 I < 5 I < 10 I < 20
6a: Difference in scores
Subindex C: T&T human, cultural, and natural resources
Colombia scores higher
Comparator scores higher
Country/Economy
Colombia
Score difference with
3.89
4.18
3.08
4.43
4.53
4.26
3.72
4.07
4.30
3.06
2.66
2.03
2.90
4.74
5.09
4.44
5.51
2.66
Thailand Costa Rica Brazil Chile South Africa Egypt Latin America* Peru Ecuador
0.55 0.28 1.07 0.31 +0.05 +0.13 0.22 0.35 1.04 0.52 0.76 0.69 0.12 0.22 0.86 1.35 0.52 0.86 0.45 +0.06 0.45 0.97 +0.56 0.70 +0.36 0.13 +0.20 0.29 0.69 0.68 +0.51 0.71 0.30 2.06 0.50 +0.15 0.20 0.13 0.73 +0.25 0.42 0.56 +0.21 +0.27 0.14 0.20 0.66 0.51 +0.59 0.07 +0.19 1.40 0.52 1.50 0.01 0.19 0.27 +0.42 +0.24 0.15 0.85 0.17 0.00 +0.02 0.06 +0.12 0.01 +0.06 +0.00 0.54 +0.52 0.34 +0.28 +0.17 +0.16 +0.50 +1.33 +0.02 0.82 0.33 +0.65
1.47 1.15 0.71 +0.16 0.61 0.06 0.82 0.06 0.93 0.06 0.08 0.54 0.70 +0.07 1.04 0.17 +0.50 0.07 0.45 1.14 1.38 0.51 0.12 0.13 0.81 0.92 0.56 +0.31 0.29 +0.86 0.26 0.53 0.41 +0.46 1.28 +0.19 0.03 0.40 0.77 +0.10 0.13 +0.12 +0.48 +0.42 0.49 +0.38 0.20 +0.07 +0.39 +0.30 0.39 +0.48 0.29 +0.50
0.97 +0.97 0.92 +0.10 +0.03 0.86 +0.05 +2.32 0.56 +0.92 1.00 +3.03 0.30 +1.51 0.13 +0.31 +0.20 +0.80
1.18 +0.89 2.98 0.21 0.21 +0.13 +0.33 0.27 +0.50
Count of pillars where Colombia scores higher
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2009
Subindex A: T&T regulatory framework
Price competitiveness in the T&T industry
Prioritization of Travel & Tourism
Health and hygiene
Safety and security
Cultural resources
Natural resources
ICT infrastructure
Human capital
4 2 6 3 5 5 5 8 10
Source: World Economic Forum, 2009. *Average score; includes Caribbean.
6b: Difference in ranks
Rank difference
Subindex C: T&T human, cultural, and natural resources
I < 1.0
I < 0.5
I < 0.1
I < 5
I < 10
I < 20
Colombia ranks higher
Comparator ranks higher

Count of pillars where Colombia scores higher
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2009
Price competitiveness in the T&T industry
Prioritization of Travel & Tourism
Health and hygiene
Safety and security
Country/Economy
Colombia
Rank difference with
72
91
88
34
60
84
125
86
67
65
108
93
65
66
64
104
Thailand Costa Rica Brazil Chile South Africa Egypt Latin America* Peru Ecuador
33 30 27 15 11 8 1 +2 +24
21 43 +4 42 9 39 9 2 +12
48 33 19 30 36 23 11 +4 +9
15 3 30 +30 +15 +39 +29 1 +28
+2 12 +34 41 24 5 1 +3 +66
+15 57 51 20 40 +19 +1 +2
7 53 +5 87 +3 58 17 26
15 21 6 20 +8 22 5 +10 13
45 38 +17 +10 7 58 +4.5 14 +39
40 23 19 14 22 7 +3.5 +27 +21
52 5 +2 51 44 29 +17 +11
54 60 48 24 47 19 15 4
+6 4 5 16 +15 +19 +16 +20
47 9 +25 13 28 65 19 26
7 40 9 17 +48 +19 +7 +34
82 77 +4 +7 61
+19 +1 3 +58 +17
23 +33 42 8 11 +4 +23.5 14 +15
Cultural resources
Natural resources
ICT infrastructure
Human capital
56
4 2 6 3 5 5 6 8 10
84 +104 18.5 +35.5 19 +13 +3 +14
3.5 23.5
7 20.5
+6.5 13.5 +11.5
Source: World Economic Forum, 2009. * Median rank; includes Caribbean. Note: See text for details.
10
Colombia ranks 72nd out of 133 economies in the 2009 TTCI, fairly stable from the previous year but lagging behind most of the comparator group (with the exception of Peru and Ecuador, ranked 74th and 96th, respectively) and the regional average (3.89 vs. 3.91 for Latin America and the Caribbean). This gap is further corroborated by the heatmaps assessment of Colombias comparative showing: the country outperforms only Peru and Ecuador in more than 8 pillars, while it is largely outperformed by the rest of the comparator countries/regions in a larger number of pillars. In particular, Costa Rica and Chile display a better performance than Colombia in 12 and 11 pillars, respectively. The Index highlights as especially problematic elements of Colombias T&T competitiveness, the levels of safety and security and health and hygiene prevailing in the country (125th and 86th, respectively), the quality of its ground transport and tourism infrastructure (108th and 93rd, respectively), as well as the affinity for Travel & Tourism of the country as a whole (104th). Moreover, as shown by Figure 4, the country has seen a comparative decline in some dimensionssuch as its tourism and transport infrastructure, health and hygiene, affinity for Travel & Tourism, and price competitiveness dimensions. Given that this is a comparative assessment, it is possibly linked to Colombias lack of progress compared with other countries that are improving more quickly in these areas. On a more positive note, Figure 4 highlights some areas of significant improvement since 2008: notably the increased prioritization of the T&T sector in the governments agenda (an impressive 32-rank jump, from 99th in 2008 to 67th in 2009), the greater focus on the sustainable development of the sector, a more supportive policy environment, and better ICT infrastructure and human capital. These improvements bode well for the countrys capacity to better leverage the T&T sectors potential for increased overall competitiveness going into the future. Moreover, the Index points to important competitive advantages on which Colombia can build its T&T sector, in particular its first-class natural resources (5th), its cultural assets (56th), policy rules and regulations (60th), human capital (64th), ICT and air transport infrastructure (both 65th), and price competitiveness (66th). In the rest of this section, we will delve into Colombias performance in the three subindexes and 14 pillars of the TTCI, identifying the main competitive advantages and shortcomings in each area. Comparisons will primarily be drawn with the countries shown in the tables in this paper and additional country comparisons of the full 133-country sample will also be made when relevant.
T&T regulatory framework
of the T&T industry. The T&T regulatory framework subindex gauges the various and diverse T&T drivers under the purview and influence of the government, including those rules and regulations affecting the T&T sector, the extent to which the sector is being developed in an environmentally sustainable way, safety and security, health and hygiene, and, last but not least, the degree of prioritization of the T&T sector in the national agenda. Colombia posts its worst showing across the three subindexes in the T&T regulatory framework. With a rank of 91st, the country trails behind most of the comparators except Brazil (95th) and Ecuador (103rd), clustering with Peru (89th) and separated by a 43-place gap from regional and comparator best-performer Costa Rica (48th). Policy rules and regulations The policy rules and regulations pillar captures the extent to which the regulatory environment in a given country fosters and enables the development of the T&T sector. Government actions and regulations can significantly impact the attractiveness of the T&T sector both by making the general business environment more investor friendly and by specifically facilitating T&T activities. In this context, the pillar includes measures of prevalence of foreign ownership, the business impact of FDI rules, property rights protection, measures of the ease of doing business, visa requirements, and the openness of the bilateral Air Service Agreements into which the country has entered. With a score of 4.53, Colombia ranks 60th in this pillarits third-best performance across the 14 pillars of T&T competitiveness.11 The country has still a long way to go to catch up with globally top ranked Singapore (currently separated by a large score gap of 1.71), as well the best performers in the comparator sample, Chile (19th) and South Africa (36th). However, it largely outperforms laggards Ecuador (126th) and Brazil (94th), as well as two countries with a higher overall rank: Thailand (62nd) and Peru (63rd). While Colombia does well with regard to tourismspecific policies, most elements of the general business environment are not supportive of the T&T sector development. In terms of strengths, Colombia displays a fairly liberal visa regime (14th): in 2008, citizens from 87 out of the 192 United Nations (UN) members (around 45 percent) were exempt from obtaining a visitor visa or could obtain one upon arrival. Within the comparator group, only Peru (10th, 94 countries) and Costa Rica (12th, 89 countries) have slightly more open visa regulations (see Table 7). This reflects the governments recent efforts toward progressively eliminating visa requirements from selected countries, coupled with the countrys absence of a passport requirement for citizens of Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru.
The government plays a crucial role in establishing and fostering an environment conducive to the development
Table 7: Visa requirements: Colombia and selected comparators, 2008

Economy Rank Number of UN countries exempt Percent
Malaysia Singapore Philippines Hong Kong SAR Barbados Korea, Rep. Dominican Republic Jamaica Mauritius Cambodia Peru Costa Rica Colombia Chile South Africa Egypt Brazil Ecuador Thailand
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 10 10 12 14 20 28 38 67 70 75
163 162 147 144 110 104 98 97.5 97.5 94 94 89 87 80 70 60.5 58 55 52.5
84.9 84.4 76.6 75.0 57.3 54.2 51.0 50.8 50.8 49.0 49.0 46.4 45.3 41.7 36.5 31.5 30.2 28.6 27.3
improving the business environment and reducing red tape and inefficiencies. Indeed, according to this report, Colombia has made strides in seven of the ten areas assessed, having facilitated business start-up, access to credit, trade, investor protection, construction permits, property registration, and tax payments.13 Similarly, the legal framework for FDI has been remarkably strengthened over recent years, notably with Law 963 in 2005, enabling the government to conclude 20-year stability pacts with investors.14 In 2008, the amount of FDI inflows to Colombia amounted to US$10,564 million according to UNCTAD.15 Figure 5 shows the evolution of FDI inflows for Colombia and the comparators from 2005 to 2008. Environmental sustainability Environmental sustainability is a key dimension of any policy ensuring an equitable distribution of resources between the current and future generations. It is especially crucial for the T&T sector, since the long-term attractiveness of the sector for tourists and investors alike depends on it being developed in a sustainable way. The TTCIs evaluation of environmental sustainability captures two main dimensions: environmental policies and regulations (i.e., stringency and enforcement of environmental regulations, environmental treaty ratification, and the sustainability of the T&T industry development) and the actual state of the environment in any given country (i.e., carbon dioxide emissions, particulate matter concentration, and number of threatened species). Although improving from last year, Colombia remains poorly assessed at 84th for its degree of environmental sustainability, largely lagging behind the best performers in the sample Costa Rica (27th), Brazil (33rd), and South Africa (44th), and even the regional average (4.26 for Colombia vs. 4.41 for the Latin American and the Caribbean average). This is particularly worrisome considering that Colombia has one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world (Table 8), home to the second highest number of total known species (2,954 in 2008). Taking a closer look at Colombias performance in the pillar, the country fares relatively well in the variables relating to the quality of its environment (42nd for carbon dioxide emissions and 32nd for particulate matter concentration). At the same time and very encouragingly, the sustainable development of the T&T sector appears to be a growing priority for the government (53rd, 18 places up from 2008). In this sense, within the framework of its 2002 Poltica Nacional de Cambio Climtico (National Policy of Climate Change), the government has adopted important policies on biodiversity and ecotourism, targeting 28 out of the 49 areas of the National Park System for ecotourism development among other actions.16 Moreover, a number of programs were implemented, including the publication
Source: United Nations World Tourism Organization. Note: This variable is based on visitor visa requirements of all UN countries. The score refers to the number of UN countries whose citizens are exempt from obtaining a visa to enter each country. In compiling the data, each country that requires no visa at all receives a 1 and each country for which it is possible to obtain a visa upon arrival receives 0.5. Those countries for which a visa is required prior to departure would receive a 0. The sum across all UN countries produces the final score shown in the table. Blue indicates comparators discussed in the text and for which country profiles are included in this paper; black indicates the top 10 economies in this variable, other than the comparators.
The bilateral Air Service Agreements into which the country had entered until 2005 are deemed to be fairly open, fostering competition in the sector (41st). Indeed, an important element of Colombias efforts to improve air connectivity between 2002 and 2010 has been a focus on improving and expanding bilateral air agreements. Not only are there existing agreements with Aruba, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States, but new agreements have also been signed with the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Barbados.12 On a less positive note, the regulations impacting foreign ownership and FDI are perceived as restrictive in Colombia (it is ranked 86th for the prevalence of foreign ownership and 80th for the business impact of rules on FDI). Moreover, although Colombia has been among the worlds 10 biggest reformers a number of times in the last seven years in the World Banks Doing Business report, the 2008 data used for the TTCI calculation for time required to start a business and cost to start a business placed the country quite low, at 95th and 72nd, respectively. Nevertheless, the encouraging results obtained in the latest Doing Business 2010 report reflect the governments commitment and success in
11
Figure 5: FDI Inflows: Colombia and selected comparators, 200508
50,000
I 2005
I 2006
I 2007
I 2008
40,000
30,000
US dollars
20,000
10,000
0 Brazil 10,000 Chile Colombia Costa Rica Ecuador Egypt Peru South Africa Thailand
Source: UNCTAD, Foreign Direct Investment database.
12 Table 8: Total known species: Colombia and selected comparators, 2008

Country Rank Value
Brazil Colombia Peru Indonesia Ecuador China Venezuela Bolivia Mexico India Thailand Costa Rica South Africa Chile Egypt
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 17 19 24 55 70
3,129 2,954 2,701 2,595 2,418 2,122 2,019 2,010 1,965 1,842 1,371 1,268 1,175 645 495
Source: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Red List of Threatened Species 2008. Note: Blue indicates comparators discussed in the text and for which country profiles are included in this paper; black indicates the top 10 economies in this variable other than the comparators.
and distribution of 10,000 copies of a Guide on Natural Tourism; and the adoption of a program for posadas tursticas, which included the establishment of a dedicated official webpage (http://www.posadasturisticasdecolombia. com) and the production of special guides and digital catalogues with information on the tourism offerings available in the surrounding areas of each posada.17 Also the Politica para el Desarrollo del Ecoturismo (Policy for Ecotourism Development) established the Comit Interinstitucional de Ecoturismo (Interinstitutional Ecotourism Committee) tasked to establish, evaluate, articulate, and implement plans, programs, and projects that strengthen the countrys value proposition on ecotourism.18 On the other hand, worrisome features are the large number of threatened species (11.92 percent of the total known species for mammals, birds, and amphibians, placing the country 120th),19 and Colombias ratification of few environmental treaties (only 13 ratified treaties of the 25 considered in this measure, placing the country 121st) in 2008. So few ratifications contrasts with the general trend in the comparator sample: Table 9 shows that all comparator countries appear within the top half of the rankings for this indicator, with the exception of Thailand (104th, with 15 ratified treaties). In addition, the stringency and enforcement of environmental regulations is still not perceived as being in line with international best practice (ranked 66th and 76th, respectively). Box 1 provides a more detailed analysis of the importance of a sustainable T&T policy
for Colombia and some examples of best practices in the region, notably from Costa Rica. A continued focus on developing the sector in an environmentally sustainable way should be prioritized, notably with an emphasis on the adoption and enforcement of more stringent environmental regulations and increased participation in the international instruments aimed at environmental protection. Safety and security Physical safety is an important precondition for making the T&T sector of a given country attractive to both tourists and investors: when selecting a destination, tourists may be deterred from traveling to a country or region they perceive as dangerous, while investors may be reticent to invest and develop the T&T sector in countries lacking physical security. Dimensions covered in the safety and security pillar are the business costs generated by the threat of terrorism, the reliability of police services, the business costs of crime and violence (all from the World Economic Forums Executive Opinion Survey), and the number of road traffic accidents. The improvement of safety and security conditions, and public perception of such characteristics, requires special attention for countries such as Colombia that have a recent history of civil unrest and violence. Despite important advances made in the war against terrorism and drug-trafficking and toward social pacification in recent years, this remains Colombias weakest assessment out of the 14 pillars of T&T competitiveness. At a disappointingly low 125th position, Colombia clusters with the absolute laggards in the comparator sample, Brazil (130th) and South Africa (128th), displaying an 87-place gap with respect to sample best-performer Chile (38th).20 While the perceived reliability of police services (77th) is merely mediocre, Colombia fares very poorly in the remaining variables: 133rd for the cost of terrorism, 118th for the business costs of crime and violence, and 109th for the estimated deaths per 100,000 population caused by road traffic accidents. Considering that most of the variables included in this pillar capture the perception of the business community in the country, it is possible that this is a case of perception lagging behind reality with respect to the actual achievements in physical safety in the country.21 The Politica de Defensa y de Seguridad Democrtica (Defense and Democratic Safety Policy) adopted by the Uribe administration in 2003 to usher in a more active role for civil society, alongside the government, in the fight against terrorism,22 was accompanied by the tourism promotion campaign Vive Colombia viaja por ella (Live Colombia, travel in it). 23 This campaign was very successful in restoring the free movement of Colombians and tourists alike throughout the country, notably through the creation of 2,234 rutas seguras (safe roads), with an important surge in domestic tourism and
Table 9: Environmental treaty ratification: Colombia and selected comparators, 2008

Country Rank No. of treaties (out of 25)
Sweden Australia France Greece Netherlands New Zealand Norway Spain United Kingdom Belgium Denmark Finland Germany India Ireland Japan Kenya Portugal Senegal Slovenia Brazil Chile Ecuador Egypt South Africa Costa Rica Peru Thailand Colombia
1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 21 21 34 34 34 52 52 104 121
24 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 21 21 20 20 20 19 19 15 13
Source: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Environmental Law Centre ELIS Treaty Database. Note: This variable measures the total number of international treaties from a set of 25 for which a state is a participant. See the Technical Notes and Sources at the end of Part 2 for more details on this variable. Blue indicates comparators discussed in the text and for which country profiles are included in this paper; black indicates the top 10 economies in this variable.
improved national cohesion.24 On a partially related note, the ministry of commerce, industry and trade has earmarked 400 million Colombian pesos for a program to train and upgrade the capabilities of the tourism police.25 Further improving security conditions and the security perception both inside and outside the country is a key priority for consolidating Colombias T&T competitiveness together with its country brand more generally. Health and hygiene Good general hygiene conditions and the satisfactory availability of healthcare services are, together with physical security, another important basic factor for a Travel & Tourismconducive environment. The health and hygiene pillar captures this concept through meas-
13
Box 1: Opportunities to boost Colombias competitive advantage in sustainability

As discussed in the text, Colombias natural resources are a clear competitive advantage, placing the country a high 5th overall on this pillar. This is echoed by the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which ranks 163 countries and provides a measurement of how close countries are to established environmental policy goals, and where Colombia ranks 10th.1 Given the pristine beauty and diversity of its territory and the countrys highly favorable ranking in World Heritage natural and cultural sites, Colombia has a unique opportunity to make sustainability a key component of its T&T value proposition. While the country ranks fairly well for the quality of its environment, however, there is much room for improvement in terms of preservation through environmental regulation and enforcement, as demonstrated by Colombias lower ranking of 84th in the area of environmental sustainability. Prioritizing such a framework is important, since strong and well-enforced regulation ensures that current development needs are met without compromising the ability to enjoy such resources in the future. Within this context, managing and preserving Colombias world heritage must be understood as an essential component of the countrys competitive advantages in tourism both now and for the future. Costa Rica, which is the best performer for environmental sustainability in the TTCI among comparator countries and the third-best-ranked country globally in the EPI, provides an interesting case study on regulatory incentives. Among other efforts, Costa Rica adopted a rating and incentives system that allows it to successfully develop its T&T sector in a manner consistent with the preservation of its natural and cultural resources. Costa Ricas Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) program ranks businesses in the tourism sector based on the degree to which they comply with a sustainable model of natural, cultural, and social resource management.2 Based on their rankings, companies then have access to a series of benefits including international and national publicity and promotion; personnel training; and priority participation in various world tourism fairs and events, among others. Benefits for each company are proportional to its ranking, and increase as the rating increases. The CST allows Costa Rica to advance in four areas key to promoting the development of a sustainable T&T sector: Establishing a long-term strategy: Providing the adequate incentives for investors in the T&T sector in Costa Rica allows the country to foster the healthy development of the sector in the long term. Since the CST is meant to encourage companies to advance toward a model of sustainability, companies interested in entering the lucrative tourism business in Costa Rica will strive to rank as high as possible in order to access the multiple benefits allotted to leading companies in sustainability. Regulatory framework: The CST complements Costa Ricas standards regulatory framework by evaluating companies against key sustainability measures. These measures include important factors related to biodiversity, use and management of key resources such as energy and water, waste handling policies, and its ability to encourage employment opportunities and other social benefits for the local communities. Enforcement: The CST is a voluntary program and therefore companies are not required to meet the programs criteria. However, participating companies are evaluated on a periodic basis, which allows for verification that sustainability measures previously identified are in fact part of the companys long-term operational policy. Awareness: The CST incentive system generates awareness among businesses in the T&T sector on the importance and benefits of adopting sustainable practices. It also contributes to raising the general publics awareness of environmental issues by establishing, as one of the evaluation criteria, how well the company engages its customers as active contributors to the companys policies of sustainability.
14
Notes
1 2010 Environmental Performance Index. Available at http://epi.yale.edu/Countries. 2 Certification for Sustainable Tourism. Available at http://www.turismo-sostenible.co.cr/en/cst/about-cst/ what-implications-does-the-cst-have.php.
ures such as the percentage of the population with access to improved sanitation and drinking water (as a proxy for hygiene conditions) as well as the number of physicians per 1,000 population and hospital beds per 10,000 population (as a proxy for healthcare availability). Colombia ranks a poor 86th place for its health and hygiene conditions, trailing behind most of the comparators, although with a smaller gap than in other
pillars. The exceptions are South Africa (94th) and Peru (96th). Indeed, health and hygiene seems to be a concern also for sample top performers in the overall Index, Thailand and Costa Ricaranked 71st and 65th, respectively, in this pillar. Although a fairly high percentage (93 percent) of Colombians have access to improved drinking water, this still places the country only at 68th place, while only 78 percent have access to improved
sanitation (80th). As for the availability of healthcare services, with only 1.35 physicians per 1,000 people (as opposed to 5 for globally top ranked Greece) and 12 hospital beds per 10,000 people (as opposed to 141 for global best performer Japan), Colombia seems to have a large margin for improvement to catch up with international best practices. At the same time, one must point out that the coverage of the healthcare system has consistently improved over the years, increasing from 23 percent of the population in 1990 to 80 percent in 2002, with the objective of reaching universal coverage in 2009.26 Prioritization of Travel & Tourism Countries that have consistently prioritized the development of the T&T sector in their national agenda have often made great strides in substantially boosting their T&T competitiveness. By making it clear that Travel & Tourism is a key pillar of the national competitiveness strategy, and by reflecting this in its budget priorities, the government can channel needed funds to essential development projects as well as attract further private investment in the sector by signaling its importance to investors. This pillar attempts to gauge the extent of T&T prioritization in the government agenda by analyzing quantitative elements, such as government expenditure on the T&T sector as a percentage of the total budget, the countrys presence at T&T fairs worldwide (out of 13 major tourism fairs taken into consideration by the variable), and the perceived priority assigned by the government to the sector and the effectiveness of marketing and branding to attract tourists. With a score of 4.30, a showing in line with the Latin American average (4.31), Colombia is ranked 67th for the prioritization of its T&T sector. Although the country still displays a large gap with respect to the samples best performers Egypt (9th) and Thailand (22nd), it outperforms comparators such as Ecuador (106th), Brazil (84th), and Chile (77th). Moreover, Colombia posted its largest improvement in this pillar across the board since the previous year, up 32 places. This promising trend reflects the increasing priority given to the sectors development in the countrys national competitiveness strategy. As mentioned in the introduction to this paper, recognizing the T&T sectors importance for overall economic growth and competitiveness as well as for the design and consolidation of a new, positive country brand, the government has progressively put more emphasis on and resources into the sector, with the adoption of the Colombia es pasin country brand in 2005 and the international promotion campaign Colombia, el riesgo es que te quieras quedar in 2007, among others. As part of this latter campaign, the country also established a more active presence in its largest T&T markets, namely Mexico, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina,
Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Poland.27 Colombia improved its showing in all the variables included in the pillar. In particular, it has leaped an impressive 52 places for its attendance at major tourism fairs (6 out of the 13 assessed, corresponding to a 41st rank). Important advances have also been posted for the effectiveness of marketing and branding (from 62nd in 2008 to 54th) and the governments prioritization of the T&T industry (from 78th in 2008 to 67th). On a less positive note, the countrys greater focus on the T&T sector has not yet translated into a notable increase of government expenditure on Travel & Tourism, which remained quite low at 2.04 percent of the total budget in 2008, corresponding to 99th place. This compares quite poorly not only with the 21.24 percent of the budget of the Dominican Republic, the country investing the biggest budget portion in Travel & Tourism, but also with comparators such as Egypt (6.66 percent, 20th) and Costa Rica (6.15, 22nd). Indeed, as shown in Table 10, Colombia is the second-to-last country in the comparator sample for the amount of government resources invested in the sector: only South Africa invests less, at 0.54 percent (124th). Going forward, it will be important to reinforce the message to the public and the business community of the importance of the T&T industry for the development and overall competitiveness of Colombias economy.
T&T business environment and infrastructure
The presence of extensive and efficient hard infrastructure (including air and ground transport as well as tourism and ICT infrastructure) is an essential precondition for the development of the T&T sector. At the same time, elements of the business environment, such as its price competitiveness, play a special role in fostering a countrys attractiveness for tourism. Colombia ranks a disappointing 88th place for its T&T business environment and infrastructure, trailing at the back of the comparator group, higher only than Peru (92nd) and Ecuador (97th). Also, the large 48-place divide from best-ranked comparator Thailand (40th) points to the long way Colombia has to go to upgrade and develop its infrastructure, as well as increase its price competitiveness, to optimal levels. Air transport infrastructure High-quality and well-developed air transport infrastructure provides easy access to and from third countries, as well as to destinations within countries. To provide a comprehensive assessment of the air transport infrastructure, this pillar measures both its quantity and quality. The quantity aspect is captured by indicators such as the available seat kilometers (domestic and international), the number of departures per 1,000 population, airport density, and number of operating airlines in the country. In turn, the quality of air transport is assessed by two
15
Table 10: T&T government expenditure as a percentage of total budget: Colombia and selected comparators, 2008
Country Rank Value
Table 11: Number of airports per million population: Colombia and selected comparators, 2007
Country Rank Value
Dominican Republic Jamaica Mauritius Barbados Iceland Malta Jordan Singapore Gambia, The Cambodia Egypt Costa Rica Chile Ecuador Brazil Thailand Peru Colombia South Africa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 22 46 53 77 79 81 99 124
21.24 16.82 16.05 15.83 11.45 11.25 10.41 10.18 9.51 9.23 6.66 6.15 4.12 3.78 2.82 2.72 2.68 2.04 0.54
Iceland Norway Canada Australia Panama New Zealand Mongolia Malta Sweden Finland Costa Rica Colombia Chile Ecuador Peru Brazil Thailand South Africa Egypt
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 41 42 44 73 78 85 90 117
28.94 10.62 7.85 7.33 6.58 6.39 5.74 4.89 4.48 4.16 3.81 1.13 1.08 1.05 0.61 0.56 0.47 0.42 0.19
Source: World Travel & Tourism Council, Tourism Satellite Accounting Research, 2008. Note: Blue indicates comparators discussed in the text and for which country profiles are included in this paper; black indicates the top 10 economies in this variable.
Source: International Air Transport Association, SRS Analyser; national sources. Note: Blue indicates comparators discussed in the text and for which country profiles are included in this paper; black indicates the top 10 economies in this variable.
16 variables from the Survey both for international and national flights. At 65th, Colombia receives a worse assessment in this pillar than most comparator countries, the exceptions being Ecuador (86th) and Peru (92nd). Moreover, the country is separated by a 40-place gap from top-ranked Thailand (25th). Thailand is in a league of its own for the quality of its air transport infrastructure among comparators: the next-ranked country, Costa Rica, is placed at a fairly distant 42nd position. The evaluation of air transport quality appears to be the comparatively more problematic aspect of Colombias general performance in this pillar: the quality of air transport infrastructure and the international air transport network are ranked 64th and 72nd, respectively. On the other hand, several aspects related to the quantity of available air transport in Colombia are relatively well assessed. The country ranks 27th for the scheduled available seat kilometers originating in the country and 51st for those originating abroad; it also benefits from 1.13 airports per million population, placing 41st for its airport density, second only to Costa Rica in the comparator sample (see Table 11). Indeed, Colombia can count on 47 airports, of which 9 are international. On a more negative note, the number of operating airlines (25.5), ranked 68th, compares quite poorly with other comparators such as Thailand (92 operating airlines, 13th) and Egypt (71.5, 20th), as displayed in Table 12. Also the departures per 1,000 population at 3.84 (55th) are a far cry from the 93.6 of globally top ranked Luxembourg. To address this shortcoming, the country has progressively extended the number and frequency of international flights: from 2007 and 2008 and from 2008 to 2009, respectively, an additional 101 and 47 international flights were established, connecting destinations that had previously benefited from no direct international flights, such as Panama-Bucaramanga, Barcelona-Medellin, and Bogot-Caracas, among others. Moreover, a third national airline company is now catering to national and international routes, expanding national offers, reducing prices, and transporting more travelers.28 Clearly, upgrading the quality of the air transport network and further improving the connectivity to key overseas markets should be a priority for laying the foundation of T&T development in Colombia. Ground transport infrastructure Extensive and high-quality ground transport networks play a vital role in easing the movement of people and goods across a country, as well as promoting regional tourism. This pillar provides a qualitative assessment of roads, railroads, port, and ground transport infrastructure (including the extent to which the overall ground transport system offers efficient, accessible transportation to key business centers and tourist attractions within the country), together with a quantitative measurement of road density (kilometers of road per 100 square kilometers of land).
Table 12: Number of operating airlines: Colombia and selected comparators, January and July 2008 average
Economy Rank Value
Table 13: Number of hotel rooms per 100 population: Colombia and selected comparators, 2007
Economy Rank Value
United States United Kingdom France Germany Italy Spain Canada Russian Federation Switzerland China Thailand Egypt South Africa Brazil Colombia Chile Costa Rica Peru Ecuador
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 13 20 30 32 68 70 75 78 81
188.00 185.00 184.00 166.50 158.00 134.50 112.50 112.00 103.50 95.50 92.00 71.50 54.00 50.00 25.50 22.50 20.50 20.00 18.50
Cyprus Malta Austria Greece Iceland Barbados Spain Italy Bulgaria Switzerland Costa Rica Thailand Peru Chile Ecuador Egypt Colombia South Africa Brazil
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 29 48 54 58 59 74 83 91 n/a
5.62 4.92 3.48 3.29 2.79 2.30 1.88 1.82 1.80 1.75 0.92 0.59 0.50 0.38 0.38 0.25 0.16 0.13 n/a
Source: International Air Transport Association, SRS Analyser. Note: Blue indicates comparators discussed in the text and for which country profiles are included in this paper; black indicates the top 10 economies in this variable.
Source: United Nations World Tourism Organization. Note: Blue indicates comparators discussed in the text and for which country profiles are included in this paper; black indicates the top 10 economies in this variable.
As mentioned above, movement within Colombia was quite challenging in the recent past, given the difficult security situation. Although extraordinary progress on this front has been made in the last decade, the countrys ground transport infrastructure remains a weakness. Colombia posts its second-worst showing (108th) across the 14 pillars of T&T competitiveness for its ground transport infrastructure. This seems to be a problem shared by other countries from the Latin American region, with only Chile ranking in the top half of the general rakings of 133 countries (57th), and Costa Rica (103rd), Brazil (110th), Ecuador (119th), and Peru (125th) all positioned at the bottom. This consideration also applies, though to a lesser extent, to the extraregional comparators: Thailand, the relative best performer, is ranked a far-from-impressive 56th, followed by South Africa (64th) and Egypt (79th). The quality of ports, railroad infrastructure, and roads are particularly poor in Colombia, ranked at 108th, 99th, and 91st, respectively, while the overall domestic transport network is assessed slightly better at 62nd. Also road density, at 14.39 kilometers per 100 square kilometers of land (62nd) is a far cry from that of best global performer Malta (704.4 kilometers) and regional best performer Barbados (372.1 kilometers, 5th). Tourism infrastructure Equally important for supporting T&T sector development, besides general transport infrastructure, is the tourism-specific one, including hospitality conditions
(proxied by the number of hotel rooms per 100 population) as well as the presence and extent of Travel & Tourismspecific services (proxied by the presence of major rental companies and the number of automated teller machines [ATMs] accepting Visa credit cards per million population). At 93rd, Colombia is ranked last in the comparator sample for the quality of its tourism infrastructure, 60 places behind best-ranked comparator Costa Rica (33rd). This is also the countrys worst showing in the T&T business and infrastructure subindex. The poor ranking points to the need to seriously upgrade the countrys tourism-specific infrastructure in order to effectively respond to the need of an increasing number of tourists. In particular, Tables 13 and 14 show how Colombias hotel and ATM infrastructure compares with the top 10 countries for each measure, as well as the selected comparator group. Although Colombia, with 0.16 rooms per 100 population (83rd), outperforms South Africa (0.13 rooms, ranked 91st) and it is not much behind sample best-performer Costa Rica in absolute terms (0.92), it still has a long way to go to catch up with global top performers Cyprus and Malta (5.62 and 4.92 rooms per 100 population, respectively). Further, the ATM infrastructure for cash withdrawal needs to be strengthened for Colombia to bridge the divide with global best performers Spain and the United States: only 155.2 ATMs per million population accepted Visa cards in Colombia in 2007 (65th) vs. 1,355.53 and 1,314.58 in Spain and the United States, respectively.
17
Table 14: ATMs accepting Visa cards per million population: Colombia and selected comparators, 2007
Economy Rank Value
Table 15: Mobile telephone subscribers per 100 population: Colombia and selected comparators, 2007
Economy Rank Value
Spain United States Portugal Austria Switzerland Luxembourg Slovenia Iceland France Australia Thailand South Africa Costa Rica Chile Colombia Brazil Ecuador Peru Egypt
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 34 45 46 62 65 68 79 92 96
1,355.55 1,314.58 1,101.51 1,063.29 929.45 880.00 826.50 816.67 793.58 792.43 343.72 283.54 278.89 194.40 155.19 140.45 86.84 39.65 29.41
United Arab Emirates Qatar Estonia Bahrain Hong Kong SAR Lithuania Italy Bulgaria Luxembourg Israel South Africa Chile Thailand Ecuador Colombia Brazil Peru Egypt Costa Rica
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 55 59 66 71 74 82 87 96 104
173.37 150.41 148.42 148.28 146.41 144.90 135.14 129.57 129.50 128.50 87.08 83.89 80.42 75.60 73.54 63.08 55.25 39.82 33.76
Source: Visa International. Note: Blue indicates comparators discussed in the text and for which country profiles are included in this paper; black indicates the top 10 economies in this variable.
Source: International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Indicators 2008. Note: Blue indicates comparators discussed in the text and for which country profiles are included in this paper; black indicates the top 10 economies in this variable.
18 Finally, out of seven major international rental car companies, only three are present in Colombia (which corresponds to a dismal 95th position), as opposed to six in Brazil, Costa Rica, and Mexico, all ranked 23rd and topping this ranking within the comparator group. An important effort to improve infrastructure conditions in the most popular tourism destinations in the country has been deployed more recently. In particular, over the last three years, important projects to support T&T development have been initiated. These projects include the construction and upgrading of convention centers in many locations, including Armenia, Cali, Barranquillas, and Pereira; tourism ports Nuqui, Santa Marta, and Acandi, among others; tourism piers such as Cartagena, Santa Marta, and San Andrs; and thematic parks in Aratoca and Pereira, among others.29 ICT infrastructure ICT has evolved into an industry-wide enabling infrastructure and is particularly important for the T&T industry. An extensive and efficient ICT infrastructure for planning itineraries and purchasing travel and accommodations, among other activities, is increasingly becoming a key element for a competitive T&T sector. This pillar gauges the quality and extension of the ICT infrastructure by measuring the extent of business Internet use, as well as penetration rates for the main ICTfor example, the number of Internet users, fixed telephone lines, broadband Internet subscribers, and mobile telephone subscribers per 100 population. At 65th, improving five places since the previous assessment, Colombia is among the best performers in the comparator sample, clustering with countries the likes of Brazil (60th) and Costa Rica (61st), after top-ranked Chile (49th). It outperforms the Latin American and Caribbean average (2.90 for Colombia vs. 2.79 for the region) as well as the rest of the comparator economies. Colombias ICT prowess and capacity to leverage ICT advances for increased growth and development are also confirmed by the results over time of the World Economic Forums Networked Readiness Index. This index, featured in The Global Information Technology Report series, assesses the national capacity to fully harness ICT advances in the general competitiveness strategy. Ranked 60th out of 133 economies in 2009, Colombia has not only followed a consistently upward trend in the last three years (9 positions up from 2007), but it is among the countries that progressed the most in a decile-rank analysis performed across time, going up by 3 decile ranks between 2001 and 2009.30 Colombias performance in this pillar is boosted by a fairly high and rapidly growing number of Internet users and broadband Internet subscribers (26.22 and 2.62 per 100 population, corresponding to a 56th and 63rd position, respectively),31 reflected in the business sectors propensity to use the Internet in its daily transactions and operations (61st for extent of business Internet use). Telephony penetration is somewhat less satisfactory, with 17 telephone lines and 73.54 mobile telephone subscribers per 100 population, corresponding
Table 16: Retail diesel fuel prices (US cents per liter): Colombia and selected comparators, 2006
Economy Rank Score
Table 17: Hotel price index: Colombia and selected comparators, 2007
Economy Rank Score
Venezuela Saudi Arabia Egypt Bahrain Libya Syria Algeria Qatar Kuwait Trinidad and Tobago Ecuador Colombia Thailand Costa Rica Brazil South Africa Chile Peru
1 2 3 4 4 4 7 7 9 10 12 28 39 42 62 62 66 66
2 7 12 13 13 13 19 19 21 24 39 57 65 67 84 84 86 86
Gambia, The Nepal Bolivia Egypt Sri Lanka Malaysia Indonesia El Salvador Ghana Moldova Ecuador Peru Chile Thailand Colombia South Africa Brazil Costa Rica
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 13 18 26 27 33 38 49 89
34.18 52.74 60.76 65.35 73.29 74.19 74.32 74.84 77.83 79.06 82.83 93.49 108.14 108.79 112.46 115.82 129.10 173.12
Source: The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2008. Note: Blue indicates comparators discussed in the text and for which country profiles are included in this paper; black indicates the top 10 economies in this variable other than the comparators.
Source: Deloitte. Note: Blue indicates comparators discussed in the text and for which country profiles are included in this paper; black indicates the top 10 economies in this variable other than the comparators.
to 72nd and 74th positions, respectively. In particular with respect to mobile telephone subscribers Colombias worst comparative showing in the pillar Table 15 shows how the country still has a long way to go before reaching the levels displayed by top performers in the global sample or best-ranked comparator South Africa, which has 87 subscribers per 100 population. The overall situation points to a promising trend toward the better leveraging of ICT in Colombias society and economy, but it also identifies the need to reinforce efforts in this regard, something that would benefit the development of the T&T industry as well as the countrys overall productivity and competitiveness. Price competitiveness in the T&T industry Price competitiveness, or an economys comparative price level with respect to the rest of the world, is an important feature of the T&T business environment in a country, since lower costs can increase the attractiveness of a destination for many travelers, all other things being equal. This pillar captures the most relevant dimensions of the price environment in a given country that have a bearing on the T&T industry. In this sense, more specific tourism-related aspectssuch as the relative cost of access to international air transport services (ticket taxes and airport charges), fuel price levels, and average room rates (i.e., the hotel price index)are taken into account, together with more general measures such as the
comparative cost of goods (as reflected by purchasing power parity) and the extent and effect of taxation. At 66th, Colombia holds the penultimate rank in the comparator sample, just ahead of Brazil (91st). Moreover, the price gap with global best-performer Egypt (1st) and Thailand (19th) is very large. Although, as shown in Tables 16 and 17, Colombia displays low fuel prices (57 US cents per liter, 28th) and affordable average room rates (US$112.46 per average room calculated for first-class branded hotels), the ticket taxes and airport charges are extremely high (117th), which increases the cost of airline tickets. This, coupled with distortive taxes (103rd) and a fairly high comparative price level (58th for its purchasing power parity), negatively impacts the countrys general price competitiveness. To summarize, despite low fuel prices and affordable hotel rooms, Colombia appears to be a fairly expensive tourist destination. This is attributable in part to a number of taxation and T&T policy-related issues, which, if addressed, could improve the countrys overall price competitiveness. Given the high spending per tourist, there does seem to be some room for lowering prices without having a significant impact on tourism receipts.
T&T human, cultural, and natural resources
Human, cultural, and natural assets are essential elements of a countrys tourism attractiveness and a prerequisite for the development of a healthy T&T industry. In this
19
Figure 6: Colombia's T&T jobs, 19902010
I T&T economy employment

6
I T&T direct industry employment
Percent of total employment
0 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Source: WTTC, Economic Data Research Tool database.
20 context, the quality of human capital and the countrys affinity for Travel & Tourism, together with the availability of natural and cultural resources, are taken into account. In particular, although the availability of qualified and healthy workers are an important element of catering to the needs of the T&T sector, citizens openness and welcoming attitude to foreign visitors and the presence and variety of cultural and natural assets are major foundations on which countries T&T competitiveness is built. Colombia displays what is by far its best showing across the three subindexes in this area, for which it ranks 34th, clustering with Costa Rica (31st) and Peru (33rd). Although it is behind top-ranked Brazil (4th), it outperforms comparators such as Egypt (73rd), Chile (64th), and Ecuador (62nd) by a significant margin. Colombias natural and cultural endowments are no doubt outstanding and have provided a good basis for the countrys recent efforts to develop the T&T sector. Human capital Because of the service-oriented and human resource intensive nature of the T&T sector, the availability of a skilled and healthy labor force able to fulfill the needs of the industry is crucial for ensuring its development. In this respect, T&T industry experts have identified several chronic vulnerabilities harming the overall quality of the labor force in the tourism sector: among these are the seasonality of the work, low levels of training, and the significant participation of young people and women with fewer skillsbetween 60 and 70 percent of workers in the T&T sector are women. The lack of necessary qualifications is often blamed on a general assumption by managers in the sector that minimal skills are required to perform tasksparticularly at lower levelswhich limits private-sector incentives to train workers.32 The human capital pillar aims at capturing the critical elements that shape the quality of a countrys human capital, taking into account two broad dimensions: the quality and quantity of education and training and the availability of qualified labor. The first subpillar gauges quantitative elements such as primary and secondary enrollment rates, together with qualitative variables such as the quality of the educational system, the local availability of specialized research and training services, and the extent of staff training. The availability of qualified labor subpillar, in turn, measures the flexibility of the labor market with specific emphasis on the ease of hiring foreign workers together with the general health conditions of the labor force in a given country (using the prevalence and business impact of HIV and life expectancy as proxies). In 2009, the T&T industry directly accounted for 1.7 percent of Colombias total employment. Taking into account the indirect as well as direct importance of the sector, it accounted for 447,000 jobs, or 5.1 percent of total employment. Figure 6 shows the evolution of T&T workers in Colombia over the last 20 years.33 To put these figures into perspective, the direct and indirect
Table 18: T&T human capital: Colombia and selected comparators

T&T human resources HUMAN CAPITAL Education and training Availability of qualified labor
Rank Costa Rica Chile Brazil Colombia Peru Ecuador Thailand Egypt South Africa Latin America and the Caribbean
Score 5.63 5.23 5.17 5.09 5.03 4.59 5.16 4.90 4.23 4.97
Rank 31 63 40 72 77 101 60 83 48 77
Score 5.34 4.77 5.05 4.57 4.52 4.05 4.80 4.41 4.98 4.54
Rank 10 25 87 37 50 97 56 75 131 67
Score 5.91 5.68 5.28 5.61 5.53 5.14 5.52 5.39 3.48 5.41
24 47 55 64 71 98 57 83 112 76
impact of T&T represented an average 6.4 percent of employment during the same period for the Latin American and the Caribbean region, with Costa Rica and Peru leading the way with figures as high as 13.6 and 6.8 percent, respectively.34 The general assessment of Colombias human resources, at 64th, is fairly positive. However, even though the country outperforms neighboring countries Ecuador (98th) and Peru (71st), it is still far behind the top-ranked comparator Costa Rica (24th) and, to a lesser extent, Chile (47th) and Brazil (55th). The overall pillar rank conceals a rather uneven performance in its two composing subpillars: while the country gets good marks for the availability of qualified labor (37th), the assessment is lower for the quality of education and training (72nd). With respect to the former, Colombias satisfactory rank is boosted by the national labor markets openness to foreign workers (33rd for the ease of hiring foreign workers) and reasonably high life expectancy (74 years, corresponding to a 50th rank). As a matter of fact, universal healthcare coverage was set as a goal for 2009, which is expected to have a positive impact on workers well-being and productivity.35 The comparator countries present mixed results in this area. While Costa Rica and Chile are ranked 10th and 25th, respectively, for the availability of qualified labor, South Africa (131st), Ecuador (97th), Brazil (87th), and Egypt (75th) lag behind at the bottom of the pillars rankings (see Table 18 for the details of the comparator countries performances on the human capital pillar and composing subpillars). On a more negative note, Colombias fairly poor quality of education and training is mainly the result of low primary and secondary enrollment rates (88.50 and 82.23 percent, respectively, corresponding to a 95th and
83rd rank), coupled with limited staff training (91st). In fact, as part of the countrys 200810 tourism strategy, the Colombian government highlighted the urgency of developing a tourism culture among workers in the T&T industry to foster competitiveness. In addition, the government adopted the Plan Indicativo de Formacin en Turismo (the Indicative Plan of Tourism Training) in 2009 as an attempt to improve workers skills, providing them with specific training to work in tourism-related activities, including language skills and capabilities for using the latest technology and applying it to the T&T sector. Ultimately, this initiative is expected not only to have positive effects on Colombias T&T competitiveness but also to improve the industrys innovation potential and capacity for knowledge sharing and provision.36 Clearly, this effort to develop specific T&T skills is to be praised, and should be accompanied by efforts to increase enrollment rates in the formal educational system as well as to ensure continuous on-the-job training to better equip the Colombian labor force to work in the T&T sector. Box 2 looks at the challenges involved in developing a national workforce strategy for the T&T sector and highlights some best practices in this respect around the world. Affinity for Travel & Tourism The attitude and openness of a country, and its society, to tourism and foreign visitors is an important component of a Travel & Tourismfriendly environment and has important implications for the competitiveness and attractiveness of national T&T sectors. This pillar is an attempt to capture countries affinity for Travel & Tourism as defined above, taking into account tourism openness (i.e., the ratio of the sum of international tourism expenditures and receipts to GDP) and the attitude of citizens toward foreign visitors as well as the
21
Table 19: Tourism openness: Colombia and selected comparators, 2007

Economy Rank Value
Barbados Albania Mauritius Montenegro Jordan Croatia Cyprus Jamaica Malta Luxembourg Costa Rica Egypt Thailand South Africa Peru Ecuador Chile Colombia Brazil
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 24 27 31 78 103 109 115 117 128
31.24 24.83 23.78 22.41 19.95 19.93 19.48 18.98 17.48 15.06 10.14 9.18 8.47 4.36 2.70 2.47 1.94 1.87 1.00
Source: United Nations World Tourism Organization. Note: Blue indicates comparators discussed in the text and for which country profiles are included in this paper; black indicates the top 10 economies in this variable.
22 likelihood that they would recommend that visitors on business trips extend their stay for leisure tourism in the country. Colombia gets poor marks for its affinity for Travel & Tourism, with a rank of 104th. This, sadly, seems to be a common feature for Latin America and the Caribbean. With the exception of Costa Rica (27th), which notably benefits from a high degree of tourism openness (24th) and the welcoming attitude of its population toward visitors (31st), the rest of the regional comparators are to be found at the bottom of the rankings: Peru at 85th, Brazil at 108th, Chile at 111th, and Ecuador at 117th. The low affinity for Travel & Tourism is something partially connected to the scarce availability and nurturing of proper T&T skills and training, which again appear to be a recurring problem in the region. The poor results for the region in this pillar contrast with the good performance of the extra-regional comparators: Egypt, Thailand, and South Africa are ranked respectively 20th, 22nd, and 43rd, and can no doubt provide a source of best practice and inspiration for Colombia in this domain. Another good source of inspiration, outside the comparator sample, is Indias Devo Bhavah (the Guest Is God) social awareness campaign, adopted in parallel with the recent Incredible !ndia campaign. This represented a pioneering attempt to raise the awareness of workers at every level of the T&T value chain (from taxi drivers to tour guides) of the importance of tourism for the economy through a process of training and orientation. The campaign aimed also at
sensitizing nationals about the preservation of Indias rich heritage and culture, cleanliness, and warm hospitality. T&T workers covered in the training included taxi drivers, baggage handlers at the airport, tourist guides, hotel staff, employees of tour operators, and immigration and customs officials, among others. Upon completion of the program, the workers are issued a 6-month certificate. Retraining is offered twice a year.37 Looking at Colombias performance in the pillar, although the country displays a fairly friendly attitude toward foreign visitors (57th), business leaders do not demonstrate a strong willingness to suggest to their business contacts that they might extend their business trips for tourism in the country (85th). Although one might think this is the legacy of a recent past of violence and social unrest, South Africa, a country that has faced similar difficulties, is ranked a very high 8th on this measure. Moreover, Colombia ranks a dismal 117th for its tourism openness, with its T&T expenditures and receipts accounting for just 1.87 percent of GDP. Although this is broadly in line with the regional performance (with the exception of Costa Rica),38 a comparison with global top performer Barbados (31.24 percent) or even best sample performers Costa Rica and Egypt (10.14 and 9.18 percent, respectively) shows the extent of the gap compared with countries placing the highest emphasis on developing their T&T sectors (see Table 19). On a more positive note, with an 11 percent rise in 2009, Colombias T&T exportsincluding visitors and other types of exports including goods for tourist consumption, such as aircraft and cruise shipsmade a significant contribution to the countrys total exports, and therefore to national GDP. Building on these results, as already mentioned, the governments goal is to place Colombia among the top five destinations in the region, receiving an average of 4 million visitors and doubling the countrys T&T annual earnings by US$4 billion by 2010.39 Natural resources Countries endowed with natural assets are clearly more attractive to visitors and have a competitive advantage with regard to developing their T&T industries. As mentioned in the environmental sustainability pillar, for natural assets to be durable competitive advantages in the long run, they need to be adequately protected and managed, striking a balance between the needs of present and future generations. The natural resources pillar aims at capturing the quality and presence of natural assets in any given country by taking into account aspects such as the number of natural World Heritage sites, protected land area as a percentage of total land area, the number of known species (mammals, birds, and amphibians), and the quality of the natural environment.
Box 2: Developing a tourism and hospitality workforce strategy: Building blocks and selected best practices
Among Colombias most pressing challenges in ensuring the sustainable development of its T&T sector is the need to provide the labor force working in the sector with appropriate, tourism-specific skills, as highlighted in the main text of this paper. This box aims to offer some guidance for the development of a national tourism and hospitality workforce strategy in Colombia by exploring the main elements of such a strategy and pointing to relevant international best practices.1 The tourism industry as a whole suffers from a number of weaknesses when it comes to attracting talent. The industry, by its very nature, employs a large number of part time or seasonal employees and involves, for many of them, working hours that do not coincide with the 9-to-5, Monday-throughFriday traditional work week. These characteristics make the sector unattractive to many potential workers, with the result that the industry is often not able to attract the most qualified people. Moreover, the sector is composed predominantly of small businesses that operate on low profit margins and cannot often afford to pay higher wages to attract the best talent. A national strategy to create a world-class tourism and hospitality workforce should therefore include an employment branding strategy, with national promotional campaigns highlighting the importance of the industry for economic development. Specifically, the industry should be seen as a national priority for governments, providing career opportunities for talented professionals as well as jobs for immigrants and lowskilled workers. Such a face-lifting campaign of the industrys image should build on the governments experience in its destination-awareness campaigns, spreading the positive messages within the country as well as outside it, to raise the profile of the T&T sector at a national level so that it becomes seen as one able to offer long-term career paths to high-caliber talented people, as well as employment opportunities for lowskilled labor. Concomitantly, a well-planned national policy addressing the human-resources development and training requirements of the hospitality sector, including vocational training programs, should be implemented. Such a policy should include at least the following elements: 1. Effective vocational training programs, through partnerships between virtual training companies and industry stakeholders, which can ensure that the training environment matches as closely as possible the real work environment that students will face when entering the industry. Moreover, governments should collaborate with educational institutions to develop vocational education and career campaigns that promote the opportunities that the industry offers to a range of potential candidates. 2. Public-private partnerships with the hospitality sector, acknowledging the critical role the private sector plays, along with the government, in fostering the development of national tourism talent. For example, the private sector should be incentivized, through different schemes, to enter into partnerships with hospitality training schools or invest in the development of local training academies. Social inclusion and pro-poor tourism, through the governments development of specialized training programs for disadvantaged people (e.g., those with disabilities, welfare recipients, indigenous populations) to find new job opportunities. Once again, public-private partnerships have proven to work very well in this context: many countries have developed partnerships with the industry to train and then hire these individuals. Hospitality programs as full-time university degrees, which are key to unlocking the potential of growing a local, well-trained workforce for the sector. Moreover, hospitality university degrees can greatly improve the image of the sector, advancing it from that of merely providing entry-level or seasonal jobs to less-educated workers to acquiring a reputation for career development equal to that provided by other service industries.
3.
4.
What follows is a discussion of selected best practices adopted in different countries around the world with respect to the elements highlighted above, as building blocks of a successful national tourism and hospitality workforce strategy.
National employment branding campaigns: Best practices

With respect to the employment branding component of the strategy outlined above, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has run a number of advertisement campaigns aimed at promoting to its citizens the value of jobs in the hospitality sector in the framework of its Emiratization program, building on its successful country branding experience.2 Among the initiatives adopted together with the advertisement campaigns are an increased participation of the hospitality industry in local job fairs to promote T&T careers and lifestyle to local talent, the establishment of national vocational training centers to ensure that the necessary skills and knowledge are offered at a local level, and the encouragement of internal company training programs for managerial-level jobs.3 The New Zealand government, to take another example, has focused on promoting the tourism and hospitality industry to potential employees and key opinion leaders, positioning tourism as a significant contributor to the national economy and as a meaningful career. In this respect, several actions have been undertaken, including:
(contd.)
23
Box 2: Developing a tourism and hospitality workforce strategy (contd.)

the adoption of national and regional campaigns on the benefits of working in the industry, targeted toward groups such as seasonal workers, migrants, and mature workers; enhanced opportunities for casual and seasonal workers to move among employers, also through joint campaigns with other sectors requiring seasonal workers; the creation of an industry-owned, centralized job information website promoting job opportunities and potential career pathways within the industry to potential employees; and the identification of potential sources of labor supply, from schools and non-traditional labor pools, including retired people and foreign students. This process was carried out in association with the Social Developments Partnership with Industry initiative to connect with people currently not in the workforce but who have the potential to work, with the Department of Labors migrant settlement initiatives to reach migrant workers, and by working with secondary schools and associated agencies to promote tourism and hospitality as a rewarding career to those finishing school.4 above, a scheme for UAE national job-seekers offering a nineweek hospitality training encompassing different aspects of the hospitality industry was developed. Many of the graduates have found jobs in Dubai five-star hotels. The number of UAE citizens graduating from the program increased from 15 in 2002 to 700 in 2009. Hotels supporting this program include Accor, Hyatt International, Jebel Ali International, Jumairah, Rotana, Shangri-La, the Intercontinental Hotels Group, and Fairmont. Developed by the Jumairah Group and the Ecole Htelire de Lausanne, the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management aims at providing the best in new hospitality management personnel to the industry through the integration of proven academic excellence with Jumeirahs world-class property management strengths. Last but not least, to respond to the stellar development of Qatars hospitality industry, the government has entered into an agreement with the Casabella Hospitality management team to develop a comprehensive local expertise in hospitality management. The courses offered cover a broad spectrum of topics on issues such as hotel management, marketing, branding, and real estate development. A successful initiative in fostering social inclusion and pro-poor tourism is the Kuku Field Studies Centre in Kenya. The Centre was established to offer cultural and environmental education opportunities to students of all ages and nationalities. All revenues generated through the Centre are used for educational purposes and for community projects that benefit the Maasai members of the Kuku Group Ranch. The Centre acts as a model for financially self-sustainable environmental education and as an example of the potential that exists for communities in Africa to benefit from their natural and cultural resources. Programs are conducted by local Maasai and include guided walks to observe the flora and fauna of the region and visits to the Maasai villages and the Amboseli and Tsavo National Parks. The program represents a clever attempt at weaving together ecological content, community interaction, and cross-cultural activities.8 In terms of hospitality university degrees, the United States and Switzerland offer the two most notable best practices in the world. With the prestigious hospitality schools of Lausanne, Crans, and Glion/Montreaux, Switzerland offers firstclass degrees in hospitality management. These schools were recently ranked as the top three institutes for hospitality management training in the world.9 The United States ranked 4th with Cornell University, followed by New York Universitys Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management. Both countries feature extremely well in the human resources pillar of the TTCI, with Switzerland ranking 4th overall and the United States 7th. All of these examples provide useful guidance for Colombia in the development of its tourism workforce strategy.
24
National policy for human resources development in the tourism and hospitality sector: Best practices
Starting with the vocational training programs, Jordan is a particularly interesting case. Tourism vocational training is being enhanced in the country using advanced programs and curricula that are based on international standards, while efforts to attract more students into the field are being increased through initiatives launched by the Ministry of Labor, the Vocational Training Corporation, and USAID/Jordan Tourism Development Project II.5 In New Zealand, the New Zealand Hotel Council (NZHC) and the Hospitality Standards Institute have joined forces to launch a first-ever industry-wide training initiative.6 The National Hotel Corporate Training Program offers two qualifications: the NZHC Entry Level Certificate, aimed at people starting their careers in the hotel Industry and covering basic skills such as computer literacy, customer relations, housekeeping, food and beverage, and guest services; and the NZHC National Diploma in Hotel Management, aimed at supervisors and managers already working in the hotel industry.7 With respect to corporate partnerships with the hospitality sector, some notable success stories are the UAEs Maharat Hospitality Training and Jumariah Academy as well as Qatars Casabella Hospitality Management. The Maharat Hospitality Training is a good example of a job-linked training scheme to boost the employment of citizens in the hospitality sector. Within the framework of the Emiratization program mentioned
(contd.)
Box 2: Developing a tourism and hospitality workforce strategy (contd.) Notes

1 The importance of a well-trained national hospitality workforce to enhance national competitiveness and reap greater economic benefits is well recognized. Australia, for instance, has gone as far as creating a skills and labor council to advise the government on how to address issues affecting the sector, such as the creation of a highly skilled workforce, access to quality employment, and better workforce planning among other factors. 2 This program, run by the Emiratization Task Force for Tourism (a branch of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing), involved the establishment of strong partnerships with local and international hospitality companies to attract local talent to the T&T industry and providing training to meet its needs. 3 WTTC 2009b. 4 Tourism & Hospitality Workforce Strategy. 2006. Available at http://www.tianz.org.nz/content/library/TourismHospWkbkLR.pdf. 5 USAID 2010. 6 Tourism & Hospitality Workforce Strategy. 2006. Available at http://www.tianz.org.nz/content/library/TourismHospWkbkLR.pdf. 7 The Diploma encompasses the various hospitality sectors, including accounting, food and beverage management, host responsibility, staff recruitment, and departmental management among other areas. 8 African Pro-Poor Tourism Development Centre. Available at http://www.propoortourism-kenya.org/success_stories.htm (accessed May 2010). 9 These rankings can be found at http://www.lesroches.edu/ les_roches_bluche/en/en-en/home/news-events/file.cfm/ document/ranking_Press_Release.pdf?contentid=69.
species of birds, mammals, and amphibians (see Table 8) and by its very high proportion of protected areas (30 percent of total land, 12th). It is noteworthy that national parks represent around 10 percent of Colombias territory.40 Moreover, two sites form part of Colombias natural World Heritage (23rd): Los Katos National Park and the Malapeo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary, which are of significant importance to the countrys landscape and therefore to the tourism industry.41 On a less positive note, the natural environment is assessed as moderately polluted (61st), confirming the need for a more comprehensive sustainability policy in the national competitiveness agenda. As a confirmation of the above, UNESCO recently added Los Katos National Park to its list of endangered national heritage sites.42 Worrisomely, the quality of the environment is a concern also for the region and remaining comparators. Costa Rica is once again the only exception to this situation, at 9th, having long focused on the sustainable management of its natural resources. Peru (76th), Ecuador (74th), and, to a lesser extent, Brazil (58th) and Chile (52nd) all appear to be in need of better environmental standards, together with Thailand (104th) and Egypt (131st), if they are to ensure the future sustainability of their T&T sectors. Cultural resources Last but not least, cultural richness is a critical foundation for diversifying T&T offerings and attracting tourists. Moreover, strong cultural resources are often associated with the more profitable segments of the T&T market. In particular, a global trend toward higher education levels and enhanced mobility has increased international awareness of cultural offerings. This has been reinforced by national efforts of countries to differentiate themselves in an increasingly globalized tourism industry, prompting a growing promotion of and interest for cultural destinations. As culture and tourism mutually benefit from their interaction, both the availability and sustainability of cultural assets are important for the creation of competitive T&T strategies. Indeed, a deeper integration of culture into the tourism industry could reinforce and improve the country brand and help to differentiate T&T products as well as to increase innovation and creativity in the economy.43 This pillar aims at capturing the cultural offerings available in individual countries by looking at the number of cultural World Heritage sites and creative industries exports (as a percentage of world exports in these industries), as well as dimensions such as the number of sports stadiums and the number of international fairs and exhibitions. At 56th, Colombia posts a fairly strong showing for the quality and variety of its cultural resources, broadly in line with important comparators such as Egypt (60th), Chile (48th), and South Africa (45th).
Colombias world-class natural endowments (5th) are the countrys main competitive advantage as assessed by the TTCI, greatly contributing to the attractiveness of the countrys T&T sector. With the partial exception of Chile (63rd), natural resources represent an important attribute for the region, with Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru, and Ecuador featuring among the best in the world at 2nd, 6th, 8th, and 19th, respectively. Within the comparator sample, South Africa and Thailand are also blessed with abundant natural resources (22nd and 24th, respectively) while Egypt, with few natural resources (109th), stands apart from the rest. At the same time, Egypt is an example of a country that successfully developed its T&T sector even without an obvious competitive advantage in terms of a diverse and rich natural offering. Colombias outstanding showing in this pillar is especially boosted by its remarkable biodiversity, the second largest in the world, with nearly 3,000 different
25
Table 20: Colombias World Heritage sites

Cultural sites Historic Centre of Santa Cruz de Mompox (1995) National Archeological Park of Tierradentro (1995) Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments, Cartagena (1984) San Agustn Archaeological Park (1995) Intangible expressions The Carnival of Barranquilla (2003) The Cultural Space of Palenque de San Basilio (2005) Natural sites Los Katos National Park (1994) Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary (2006)
Source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list. Note: Years in parentheses are the year in which the site was declared to be a World Heritage site. For the purposes of the TTCI, the intangible heritage expressions are accounted among the cultural heritage sites.
the Palenque society, including its compilation of music and dances influenced by different subcultures such as the Spanish, African, and Caribbean ones.49
26
Nevertheless, a rather conspicuous divide continues to separate the country from top performers within the comparator sample, Brazil (14th) and Thailand (33rd), pointing to the need for a continuous focus on promoting and reinforcing cultural resources.44 At present, Colombias cultural tourism policy focuses on promoting national heritage in order to encourage visitors to experience the countrys customs and culture.45 In 2007, the Colombian government presented a report in which the importance of the nations cultural heritage was highlighted as a key element for attracting tourists and fostering T&T competitiveness. In this regard, the government intended to improve the countrys standing and brand as a major cultural destinationespecially in the Latin American region, where other countries, such as Peru and Mexico, are better known for their cultural resources. In addition, the study identified culture as an employment generator and an important engine of economic growth. Further developing the cultural sector was seen as bringing benefits to local communities creating incentives for the maintenance of cultural assets, thus reinforcing the sustainability of Colombias T&T sector.46 In the same spirit, the Colombian government has made significant efforts to promote the countrys cultural assets. For instance, 1,128 monuments and locations have been declared focal points of cultural interest along with the World Heritage sites recognized by UNESCO.47 See Table 20 for a list of Colombias World Heritage sites. Colombia has a fairly extensive cultural offering, reflected in the countrys creative industry exports (40th), 380 museums, and six World Heritage cultural sites (33rd).48 It is also important to mention the recent inclusion of Colombias Cultural Space of Palenque de San Basilio and Carnival of Barranquilla among UNESCOs intangible heritage expressions. These two activities preserve valuable social, medical, religious, and oral traditions of
Conclusions With its many natural and cultural endowments, a fairly conducive regulatory environment, and the increasingly central place occupied by the T&T sector in the governments competitiveness strategy, Colombia has clear strengths to build upon in developing its national T&T industry. It is also faced with an extraordinary opportunity to turn the T&T sector into a key lever for sustained and sustainable growth and development. The analysis conducted in this paper has highlighted the important progress Colombia has made in recent years toward reinforcing the foundations for a sustainable and competitive T&T sector. At the same time, the challenges to be addressed, together with the opportunities for better leveraging the countrys many competitive advantages, have been discussed. Colombia has come a long way from its recent past of civil unrest and violence and, recognizing the key role tourism can play in boosting growth and job creation as well as in lifting people out of poverty, the country has increasingly prioritized the sustainable development of the T&T sector. This paper has related the many and diverse ways in which the current administration has intervened with targeted policies and strategies aimed at strengthening the general environment for tourism (including the human and hard infrastructure and the regulatory environment, among other factors), as well as fostering the sustainable development of the sector. We have also discussed how the governments enhanced focus on the sector has already fostered a number of improvements in important areas such as environmental sustainability, ICT infrastructure, and the quality of human capital, as captured by the TTCI. However, despite these important efforts, the enormous potential of Colombia as a tourist destination has not yet been fully leveraged for the benefit of its citizens. The country continues to display a number of important deficiencies in the quality of its T&T regulatory environment (91st) and its T&T business environment and infrastructure (88th). Moreover, although the general assessment of Colombias T&T human, cultural, and natural resources is far more positive at 34th, some weaknesses remain in this area as well. Starting with the T&T regulatory environment, despite the governments significant efforts toward restoring public order and creating an effective and appealing country brand, the security situation in the country is still perceived as problematic, with notably high costs imposed on businesses by the threat of terrorism and crime and violence. Further, general hygiene conditions are poor and the availability of healthcare services remain lacking, although some progress in this respect
is expected, given the governments effort in extending the coverage of the healthcare system to all Colombians. Last but not least, even if the government has become increasingly concerned with the need to develop the T&T sector in a sustainable way, Colombia continues to lag behind international best practices in this area. Notably, further action is required to strengthen national environmental regulations as well as commitments at the international level, and to improve the quality of the environment and the protection of biodiversity. There is also room for improvement in the T&T business environment and infrastructure. In particular, the countrys physical infrastructure remains underdeveloped and of poor quality after having been neglected for years because of the more compelling security issues that took precedence in recent years. This is especially true for ground transport and tourism-specific infrastructure. The government is well aware of the need to upgrade and extend Colombias infrastructure, understanding that this is a crucial enabling factor for further T&T development. Not only has it invested directly in a number of projects, but it has also adopted important policies and actions to improve the environment for private and foreign investment. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have increasingly transformed the paradigm in infrastructure financing in the Latin American region and beyond, allowing the financial burden to be shared between governments and private investors and allowing also for efficiency gains. Such partnerships should be encouraged and made more prevalent in the country.50 With respect to the T&T human, cultural, and natural resources, the quality and availability of education and training, both at the more general primary and secondary levels as well as for specific T&T training, is a concern. A well-trained and skilled human resources base is an essential element for a healthy and competitive T&T industry. In this sense, greater action is needed to increase enrollment rates in the general educational system and improve tourism-specific skills, including language and ICT capabilities, in line with the governments recent plan on tourism training. On a related note, Colombian societys affinity and openness to Travel & Tourism is limited, which makes more difficult the governments efforts to create an appealing country brand for Colombia. Although the affinity for Travel & Tourism is bound to improve as Colombians become more exposed to tourism and can, in turn, travel more easily, additional efforts should be undertaken to educate Colombias society on the benefits of tourism and the importance of developing a welcoming attitude in order to attract growing numbers of visitors. Although, as mentioned, there is widespread awareness of the deficiencies highlighted in this paper and encouraging remedial steps have been taken by the current administration, for Colombia to rise to its full potential, a joint effort from all societal actorsinclud-
ing the government, the business sector, citizens, and relevant organizations from civil societyis needed to pursue an effective strategy for T&T competitiveness. This effort, of course, must be matched by a concomitant long-term focus on action and diligent execution, regardless of changes in government administrations. This paper intends to provide a useful basis for a societywide discussion on how to further improve the sustainable development of the T&T sector in Colombia. By offering a snapshot of the countrys T&T competitiveness and by drawing comparisons with economies with similar tourism profiles or that have experienced issues similar to those of Colombia, the paper aims to cast light on the weaknesses that should be addressed on a priority basis and point to possible solutions and best practices within and beyond the region.
Notes
1 Although the T&T sector has been affected by the recent global economic crisis, with a 4 percent decline in tourist arrivals from 2008 to 2009, it has shown a certain resilience, as highlighted by the fact that the drop in international tourism receipts has been less dramatic than the decline in overall exports (6 percent versus 12 percent). Tourist arrivals are forecasted to increase by 3 to 4 percent in 2010. See UNTWO 2010. 2 WTTC 2009a. 3 In 2008, Colombia ranked 23rd and 33rd in the world, respectively, for the number of World Heritage natural and cultural sites. 4 WTTC 2009a. 5 UNWTO 2009. 6 For a comprehensive review of Colombias marketing and tourism promotion policy, see Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo, Viceministerio de Turismo 2009a. 7 The TTCI was developed by the World Economic Forum in the framework of its Industry Partnership Programme for the Aviation, Travel &Tourism Industries. 8 Data partners of the project are Booz & Company, Deloitte, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the UNWTO, and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), among others. 9 For more information on the Survey methodology, see Browne et al. 2008. 10 The results of the first ever TTCI computation in 2007 are not strictly comparable with those of 2008 and 2009, since the methodological framework changed substantially from 2007 to 2008, and it has been kept fairly stable since then. 11 Moreover, although the country is stable in relative terms compared with the previous year, it has significantly improved its absolute performance, with an increase of 0.17 in score (from 4.36 to 4.53). 12 Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo 2010. 13 See http://www.doingbusiness.org/documents/ Press_Releases_10/DB10_LA_PR.doc for more information on Colombias excellent showing in the World Banks Doing Business reports across the years. 14 See http://actualicese.com/editorial/recopilaciones/ABCs/ LeyEstabilidadJuridica.htm for more information on this law. 15 UNCTAD, Foreign Direct Investment database, available at: http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=1923& lang=1. According to the UNWTO (2009), in 2008 US$2,560 million in FDI was covered by stability pacts.
27
16 See Ministerio del Medio Ambiente 2002 and Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo and Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial 2003. 17 Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo 2010. 18 Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo and Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial 2003. 19 Just to put this percentage in context, the range goes from 0 percent for top-ranked Luxembourg to 30 percent for last-ranked New Zealand; of course it is also reflective of each countrys level of biodiversity. Egypt is the comparator country with the lowest percentage of threatened species: 5.45, corresponding to 80th position. All comparator countries score very poorly in this variable, placing themselves at the bottom of the general rankings (see the country profiles at the end of this paper). 20 Incidentally, safety and security appears to be an issue for all countries in the country sample with the exception of Chile (38th) and, to a lesser extent, Egypt (67th). 21 At the same time, the hard data on deaths for road traffic accidents point to dangerous roads in Colombia, no doubt also related to their poor quality and underdevelopment (the country ranks 108th for the ground transport infrastructure pillar). 22 See Presidencia de la Repblica and Ministerio de Defensa Nacional 2003 for more information on this policy. 23 See http://www.presidencia.gov.co/sne/2005/diciembre/14/ 05142005.htm for details on the campaign for safe roads. 24 The campaign intended to claim back areas that were, at the time, under the control of terrorist and narcotraffic groups, to citizens. It included the organization of caravans to points or events of touristic interest, such as festivals and folkloric manifestations, for example. The symbolic importance of this campaign cannot be overstated since Colombians literally could not move freely from one city to the other for fear of kidnapping (the infamous practice of the pesca milagrosa [the miraculous fishing]) and violent attack from the guerrilla and paramilitary groups. 25 Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo 2010. 26 See UNWTO 2009 27 See UNWTO 2009. 28 Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo 2010. 29 Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo 2010. 30 For more information about the most recent findings of the Networked Readiness Index, see Dutta et al. 2010. 31 The number of Internet users and broadband Internet subscribers per 100 population increased from 14.49 to 26.22 and from 1.36 to 2.62, respectively, from 2006 to 2007. This is a significant improvement given the importance of a widespread Internet adoption and efficient use for a modern T&T sector. 32 Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo 2009b. 33 According to the WTTC, the T&T industry captures the explicitly defined production side industry contributions (i.e., direct impact only) while the T&T economy captures the broader economy-wide impact, direct and indirect, of Travel &Tourism. 34 WTTC 2009a. 35 UNWTO 2009. 36 Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo 2009b. 37 See Incredible !ndia at http://www.incredibleindia.org/newsite/ atithidevobhava.htm. 38 Peru (103rd), Ecuador (109th), Chile (115th), and Brazil (128th) all cluster at a low level with Colombia for their tourism openness, lagging behind the rest of the world. 39 The Lonely Planet included Colombia in its top 10 destinations to visit in 2006; please see Lonely Planet 2005. 40 UNWTO 2009. 41 See the UNESCO World Heritage Center at http://whc.unesco.org/.
42 See UNESCO World Heritage sites at http://whc.unesco.org/en/ list/711. 43 OECD 2009. 44 Within the comparator sample, Ecuador (71st) and Costa Rica (89th) lag behind in terms of cultural assets. On the African continent, Egypt and South Africa are ranked 60th and 45th, respectively, while Thailand, at 33rd, has managed to successfully promote the countrys cultural resources by hosting numerous international fairs (27th) and exporting its creative work (15th). 45 Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo and Ministerio de Cultura 2007. 46 Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo and Ministerio de Cultura 2007. 47 UNWTO 2009. 48 Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo and Ministerio de Cultura 2007. 49 UNESCO 2010. 50 For a more detailed analysis of the role of PPPs in infrastructure financing in Latin America, see Mia et al. 2007.
References
Browne C., R. Bryden, M. Delgado, and T. Geiger. 2008. The Executive Opinion Survey: Capturing the Voice of the Business Community. The Global Competitiveness Report 20082009. Geneva: World Economic Forum. 6777. CST (Costa Rica Tourism Board: Certification for Sustainable Tourism Program). Available at http://www.turismo-sostenible.co.cr/en/. Dutta S., I. Mia, T. Geiger, and E. Trujillo Herrera. 2010. How Networked Is the World? Insights from the Networked Readiness Index 20092010. The Global Information Technology Report 20092010. Geneva: World Economic Forum. 330. Lonely Planet. 2005. Where To Go Next: Hot Spots for 2006. Press Release. December 28. Available at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ press-centre/press-release.cfm?press_release_id=202. Mia I., J. Estrada, and T. Geiger. 2007. Benchmarking National Attractiveness for Private Investment in Latin American Infrastructure. Geneva: World Economic Forum. Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial: Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia, Comit Interinstitucional de Ecoturismo. http://parquesnacionales.gov.co/PNN/portel/libreria/ php/decide.php?patron=01.0225 Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo. 2010. Colombia Destino Turstico de Clase Mundial. June. Bogota: Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo. Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo and Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial. 2003. Poltica para el Desarrollo del Ecoturismo. Bogota: Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo and Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial. Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo and Ministerio de Cultura. 2007. Poltica de Turismo Cultural: Identidad y Desarrollo Competitivo del Patrimonio. September. Bogota: Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo. Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo, Viceministerio del Turismo. 2009a. Poltica de Mercadeo y Promocin Turstica de Colombia. September. Bogota: Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo. . 2009b. Plan Indicativo de Formacin en Turismo, Lineamientos para su Implementacin. December. Bogota: Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo. Ministerio del Medio Ambiente. 2002. Lineamientos de Poltica de Cambio Climtico. June. Bogota: Ministerio del Medio Ambiente. OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). 2009. The Impact of Culture on Tourism. Paris: OECD. Presidencia de la Repblica and Ministerio de Defensa Nacional. 2003. Poltica de Defensa y Seguridad Democrtica. Bogota: Presidencia de la Repblica and Ministerio de Defensa Nacional.
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UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). 2010. Culture, Intangible Heritage: 2003 Convention, Colombia. Available at http://www.unesco.org/ culture/ich/index.php. UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization). 2009. Colombia: De Nuevo en el mapa del turismo mundial. Madrid: UNWTO. . 2010. UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. January 1st. Madrid: UNWTO. Available at http://www.unwto.org/facts/eng/ barometer.htm. USAID. 2010. Advanced Program for Vocational Training in Hotel and Tourism. Jordan Tourism Development Project II. March 22. Available at http://www.siyaha.org/v2/siyaha_news/724. World Economic Forum. 2008. The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008. Geneva: World Economic Forum. . 2009. The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009. Geneva: World Economic Forum. WTTC (World Travel & Tourism Council). 2009a. Travel & Tourism Economic Impact Colombia 2009. London: WTTC. . 2009b. Attracting Talent to the Travel and Tourism Sector. Presentation, September 4, New Delhi. Available at http://www.wttc.org/bin/pdf/original_pdf_file/helliwell_emirates_ presentatio.pdf.
29
Technical Appendix: Composition of the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2009 This appendix provides details about the construction of the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2009 (TTCI). The TTCI is composed of three subindexes: the T&T regulatory framework subindex; the T&T business environment and infrastructure subindex; and the T&T human, cultural, and natural resources subindex. These subindexes are, in turn, composed of the 14 pillars of T&T competitiveness shown below: namely, policy rules and regulations, environmental sustainability, safety and security, health and hygiene, prioritization of Travel & Tourism, air transport infrastructure, ground transport infrastructure, tourism infrastructure, ICT infrastructure, price competitiveness in the T&T industry, human resources, affinity for Travel & Tourism, natural resources, and cultural resources. These pillars are calculated on the basis of both hard data and Survey data. The Survey data comprise the responses to the World Economic Forums Executive Opinion Survey and range from 1 to 7; the hard data were collected from various sources, which are described in the Technical Notes and Sources section at the end of Part 2 of this paper. All of the data used in the calculation of the TTCI can be found in the Data Tables section of the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009. The hard data indicators used in the TTCI are normalized to a 1-to-7 scale in order to align them with the Executive Opinion Surveys results.1 Each of the pillars has been calculated as an unweighted average of the individual component variables. The subindexes are then calculated as unweighted averages of the included pillars. In the case of the human resources pillar, which is itself composed of two subpillars (education and training and availability of qualified labor), the overall pillar is the unweighted average of the two subpillars. The overall TTCI is then the unweighted average of the three subindexes. The variables of each pillar and subpillar are described below. If a variable is one of hard data, this is indicated in parentheses after the description.
Pillar 2: 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 Pillar 3: 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 Pillar 4: 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 Pillar 5: 5.01 5.02 5.03 Environmental sustainability Stringency of environmental regulation Enforcement of environmental regulation Sustainability of T&T industry development Carbon dioxide emissions (hard data) Particulate matter concentration (hard data) Threatened species (hard data) Environmental treaty ratification (hard data) Safety and security Business costs of terrorism Reliability of police services Business costs of crime and violence Road traffic accidents (hard data) Health and hygiene Physician density (hard data) Access to improved sanitation (hard data) Access to improved drinking water (hard data) Hospital beds (hard data)
Prioritization of Travel & Tourism Government prioritization of the T&T industry T&T government expenditure (hard data) Effectiveness of marketing and branding to attract tourists 5.04 T&T fair attendance (hard data)
30

Pillar 6: 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 Pillar 7: 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 Pillar 8: 8.01 8.02 8.03 Pillar 9: 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 Pillar 10: 10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 Air transport infrastructure Quality of air transport infrastructure Available seat kilometers, domestic (hard data)2 Available seat kilometers, international (hard data)2 Departures per 1,000 population (hard data) Airport density (hard data) Number of operating airlines (hard data) International air transport network (hard data) Ground transport infrastructure Quality of roads Quality of railroad infrastructure Quality of port infrastructure Quality of domestic transport network Road density (hard data) Tourism infrastructure Hotel rooms (hard data) Presence of major car rental companies (hard data) ATMs accepting Visa cards (hard data) ICT infrastructure Extent of business Internet use Internet users (hard data) Telephone lines (hard data) Broadband Internet subscribers (hard data) Mobile telephone subscribers (hard data) Price competitiveness in the T&T industry Ticket taxes and airport charges (hard data) Purchasing power parity (hard data) Extent and effect of taxation Fuel price levels (hard data) Hotel price index (hard data)
(Contd.)

Pillar 1: 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 Policy rules and regulations Prevalence of foreign ownership Property rights Business impact of rules on FDI Visa requirements (hard data) Openness of bilateral Air Service Agreements (hard data) 1.06 Transparency of government policymaking 1.07 Time required to start a business (hard data) 1.08 Cost to start a business (hard data)
Technical Appendix: Composition of the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2009 (contd.) Subindex C: T&T human, cultural, and natural resources
Pillar 11: Human resources Education and training 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 Primary education enrollment (hard data) Secondary education enrollment (hard data) Quality of the educational system Local availability of specialized research and training services 11.05 Extent of staff training
3 The impact of HIV/AIDS on T&T competitiveness depends not only on its respective incidence rate, but also on how costly it is for business. Therefore, in order to estimate the impact of HIV/AIDS, we combine its incidence rate with the Survey question on its perceived cost to businesses. To combine these data we first take the ratio of each countrys incidence rate relative to the highest incidence rate in the whole sample. The inverse of this ratio is then multiplied by each countrys score on the related Survey question. This product is then normalized to a 1-to-7 scale. Note that countries with zero reported incidence receive a 7, regardless of their scores on the related Survey question.
Availability of qualified labor 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10 Pillar 12: 12.01 12.02 12.03 Pillar 13: 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 Pillar 14: 14.01 14.02 14.03 Hiring and firing practices Ease of hiring foreign labor HIV prevalence (hard data) 3 Business impact of HIV/AIDS 3 Life expectancy (hard data) Affinity for Travel & Tourism Tourism openness (hard data) Attitude of population toward foreign visitors Extension of business trips recommended Natural resources Number of World Heritage natural sites (hard data) Protected areas (hard data) Quality of the natural environment Total known species (hard data)
Cultural resources Number of World Heritage cultural sites (hard data) Sports stadiums (hard data) Number of international fairs and exhibitions (hard data) 14.04 Creative industries exports (hard data)
Notes
1 The standard formula for converting each hard data variable to the 1-to-7 scale is 6 x
country score sample minimum sample maximum sample minimum
+ 1
The sample minimum and sample maximum are the lowest and highest scores of the overall sample, respectively. For those hard data variables for which a higher value indicates a worse outcome (e.g., road traffic accidents, fuel price levels), we rely on a normalization formula that, in addition to converting the series to a 1-to-7 scale, reverses it, so that 1 and 7 still correspond to the worst and best possible outcomes, respectively: 6 x
country score sample minimum sample maximum sample minimum
+ 7
In some instances, adjustments were made to account for extreme outliers in the data.
2 Variables 6.02 Available seat kilometers, domestic and 6.03 Available seat kilometers, international combine to form one single variable.
31
Part 2
Country Profiles
This section presents two-page profiles for Colombia and eight comparator countries, as follows: Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Peru, South Africa, and Thailand.
Colombia
Key indicators
Population (millions), 2009............................................................................45.7 Surface area (1,000 square kilometers) ...................................................1,141.8 Gross domestic product (US$ billions), 2009 .............................................228.8 Gross domestic product (PPP, US$) per capita, 2009 .............................8,936.4 Real GDP growth (percent), 2009...................................................................0.1 Environmental Performance Index, 2010 (out of 163 countries).....................10
Travel & Tourism indicators
Left-hand page
Key indicators
T&T industry, 2009 estimates
Percent of total
20092018 annual growth (%, forecast)
GDP (US$ millions) .............................................................4,194...................1.8 ....................3.5 Employment (1,000 jobs).......................................................341...................1.6 ....................2.1
T&T economy, 2009 estimates

GDP (US$ millions) ...........................................................12,577...................5.4 ....................4.0 Employment (1,000 jobs).......................................................975...................4.8 ....................2.6
Source: World Travel & Tourism Council, TSA Research 2010
The first section presents several key indicators that give a sense of the size of the country and its economy. Population figures come from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)s State of World Population 2009 and surface area figures are from the World Banks World Development Indicators Online Database (May 2010). GDP numbers are from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)s World Economic Outlook Database (April 2010 edition). The Environmental Performance Index rankings are from YCELP, Yale University and CIESIN, Columbia University.
International tourist arrivals (thousands), 2009...................1,354 International tourism receipts (US$ millions), 2009 ...........2,000
2,000 International tourist arrivals (thousands) 1,500 International tourism receipts (US$ millions)
1,000
500 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
Source: United Nations World Tourism Organization
Rank (out of 133)
Score (17 scale)
2009 Index ...........................................................................................................72 2008 Index............................................................................................................71 T&T regulatory framework ..............................................................................91

Policy rules and regulations..........................................................................60 Environmental sustainability..........................................................................84 Safety and security .......................................................................................125 Health and hygiene .........................................................................................86 Prioritization of Travel & Tourism..................................................................67
3.9 3.9 4.2

4.5 4.3 3.7 4.1 4.3
T&T business environment and infrastructure ............................................88

Air transport infrastructure ..........................................................................65 Ground transport infrastructure..................................................................108 Tourism infrastructure ....................................................................................93 ICT infrastructure ............................................................................................65 Price competitiveness in the T&T industry.................................................66
3.1
3.1 2.7 2.0 2.9 4.7
T&T human, cultural, and natural resources ...............................................34

Human resources ............................................................................................64 Education and training .............................................................................72 Availability of qualified labor...................................................................37 Affinity for Travel & Tourism ........................................................................104 Natural resources .............................................................................................5 Cultural resources...........................................................................................56
4.4
5.1 4.6 5.6 4.4 5.5 2.7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
The second section presents Travel & Tourism (T&T) indicators that aim to provide a measure of the past, current, and projected future activity of Travel & Tourism in each economy. This section is split into two parts: The first part presents data from the Tourism Satellite Accounting Research carried out annually by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). Developed by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Eurostat, the Tourism Satellite Accounting (TSA) framework is a statistical toolincluding concepts, definitions, aggregates, classifications, and tablesthat is compatible with international and national accounting guidelines and allows for valid international comparisons. The TSA also makes these estimates comparable with other internationally recognized macroeconomic aggregates and compilations. Using the TSA approach, WTTC estimates the current and projected future economic contribution of Travel & Tourism in terms of an economys GDP and employment. WTTC defines the T&T industry as a narrow perspective of T&T activity that captures the production-side industry contribution (that is, direct impact only).The T&T economy is a broader perspective of Travel & Tourism that takes into consideration the direct as well as the indirect contributions by traditional travel service providers and industry suppliers within the resident economy. This latter perspective is used when one wants to understand the total impact of Travel & Tourism on the resident economy. More information regarding WTTCs TSA Research, along with details on the methodology and data, are available at http://www.wttc.org/eng/Tourism_Research/. The second part of the T&T indicators presents data on international tourist arrivals and international tourism receipts from 1995 to 2007. In some cases data are missing for particular years. The graph shows all available data during this period for each economy. The data for these indicators were provided by the UNWTO. The number of international tourist arrivals, expressed in thousands, is the most common unit of measure used to quantify the volume of international tourism for statistical purposes. It includes exclusively overnight visitorsthat is,
35
tourists who stay at least one night in a collective or private accommodation in the country visited. Same-day visitors are not included. The number of arrivals does not necessarily correspond to the number of people. The same person who makes several trips to a given country during a given period will be counted as a new arrival each time. International tourism receipts, expressed in millions of current US dollars, are the receipts earned by a destination country from inbound tourism and cover all tourism receipts resulting from expenditures made by visitors from abroad, on, for instance, lodging, food and drinks, fuel, transport in the country, entertainment, shopping, and so on. This measure includes receipts generated by overnight as well as by same-day trips. Receipts from same-day trips can be substantial, as in the case of countries where a lot of shopping for goods and services takes place by visitors from neighboring countries.
Colombia
The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index in detail
INDICATOR RANK/133
I Competitive Advantage I Competitive Disadvantage

INDICATOR RANK/133
1st pillar: Policy rules and regulations

1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 Prevalence of foreign ownership .................................86 ...I Property rights..............................................................73 ...I Business impact of rules on FDI ..................................80 ...I Visa requirements* ......................................................14 ...I Openness of bilateral Air Service Agreements* ..........41 ...I Transparency of government policymaking..................48 ...I Time required to start a business*...............................95 ...I Cost to start a business* .............................................72 ...I
8th pillar: Tourism infrastructure

8.01 Hotel rooms*................................................................83 ...I 8.02 Presence of major car rental companies*....................95 ...I 8.03 ATMs accepting Visa cards* ........................................65 ...I
9th pillar: ICT infrastructure

9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 Extent of business Internet use ...................................61 ...I Internet users* .............................................................56 ...I Telephone lines*...........................................................72 ...I Broadband Internet subscribers* .................................63 ...I Mobile telephone subscribers* ....................................74 ...I
2nd pillar: Environmental sustainability

2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 Stringency of environmental regulation .......................66 ...I Enforcement of environmental regulation....................76 ...I Sustainability of T&T industry development.................53 ...I Carbon dioxide emissions* ..........................................42 ...I Particulate matter concentration* ................................32 ...I Threatened species* ..................................................120 ...I Environmental treaty ratification*...............................121 ...I
10th pillar: Price competitiveness in the T&T industry

10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 Ticket taxes and airport charges*...............................117 ...I Purchasing power parity*.............................................58 ...I Extent and effect of taxation......................................103 ...I Fuel price levels* .........................................................28 ...I Hotel price index* ........................................................33 ...I
3rd pillar: Safety and security

3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 Business costs of terrorism .......................................133 ...I Reliability of police services .........................................77 ...I Business costs of crime and violence........................118 ...I Road traffic accidents*...............................................109 ...I 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10
11th pillar: Human resources

Primary education enrollment* ....................................95 ...I Secondary education enrollment*................................83 ...I Quality of the educational system................................61 ...I Local availability of research and training services.......61 ...I Extent of staff training..................................................91 ...I Hiring and firing practices.............................................73 ...I Ease of hiring foreign labor ..........................................33 ...I HIV prevalence* ...........................................................85 ...I Business impact of HIV/AIDS.......................................93 ...I Life expectancy* ..........................................................50 ...I
4th pillar: Health and hygiene

4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 Physician density*........................................................73 ...I Access to improved sanitation* ...................................80 ...I Access to improved drinking water*............................68 ...I Hospital beds*..............................................................99 ...I
5th pillar: Prioritization of Travel & Tourism

5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 Government prioritization of the T&T industry.............67 ...I T&T government expenditure* ....................................99 ...I Effectiveness of marketing and branding.....................54 ...I T&T fair attendance* ....................................................41 ...I
12th pillar: Affinity for Travel & Tourism

12.01 Tourism openness* ....................................................117 ...I 12.02 Attitude of population toward foreign visitors..............57 ...I 12.03 Extension of business trips recommended .................85 ...I
13th pillar: Natural resources 6th pillar: Air transport infrastructure

6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 Quality of air transport infrastructure ...........................64 ...I Available seat kilometers, domestic*...........................27 ...I Available seat kilometers, international* ......................51 ...I Departures per 1,000 population*................................55 ...I Airport density* ............................................................41 ...I Number of operating airlines*......................................68 ...I International air transport network ...............................72 ...I 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 Number of World Heritage natural sites* ....................23 ...I Protected areas* ..........................................................12 ...I Quality of the natural environment...............................61 ...I Total known species*.....................................................2 ...I
14th pillar: Cultural resources

14.01 14.02 14.03 14.04 Number of World Heritage cultural sites* ...................33 ...I Sports stadiums* .........................................................78 ...I Number of international fairs and exhibitions* ............42 ...I Creative industries exports*.........................................40 ...I
7th pillar: Ground transport infrastructure

7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 Quality of roads ............................................................91 ...I Quality of railroad infrastructure...................................99 ...I Quality of port infrastructure ......................................108 ...I Quality of ground transport network ............................62 ...I Road density*...............................................................86 ...I
* Hard data Note: For further details and explanation, please refer to the section How to Read the Country Profiles at the beginning of this part.
36
The third section of the page presents the economys performance on the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2009 (TTCI) and its various components. For the detailed rankings and scores for each of the variables included in the TTCI, please see The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009.
Right-hand page
Travel & Tourism competitiveness index in detail
This page presents the rank achieved by a country on each of the indicators entering the composition of the TTCI. Indicators are organized by pillar. Please refer to the Technical Appendix at the end of Part 1 for the detailed structure of the TTCI. Next to the rank, a colored square indicates whether the indicator constitutes an advantage (blue square) or a disadvantage (gray square) for the country. In order to identify variables as advantage or disadvantages, the following rules were applied: For the top 10 economies in the overall TTCI, any variables on which the economy is ranked 10th or higher are considered to be advantages. Any variables ranked below 10 are considered to be disadvantages. For example, a country such as Spain, ranked 6th overall, would have the indicator number of World Heritage cultural sites (ranked 2nd) listed as an advantage, while the indicator stringency of environmental regulation (36th) would be considered a disadvantage. For those economies ranked from 11th to 50th on the overall TTCI, any variables with a higher rank than the economys overall rank are considered
to be advantages. Any variables ranked equal to, or lower than, the economys overall rank are disadvantages. For example, Thailand ranks 39th overall. Thus, hotel price index, on which the country ranks 27th, is an advantage, while the business costs of crime and violence (50th) and environmental treaty ratification (104th) both constitute disadvantages. For economies with an overall rank on the TTCI lower than 50, any variables for which the economy has a rank of 50 or higher are considered to be advantages. Any variables ranked below 50 are considered to be disadvantages. For example, ranked 74th overall, Peru has the variable T&T fair attendance (25th) listed as an advantage, while the variable quality of ground transportation network (120th) is a disadvantage.
List of Countries
Country
Page
Colombia Brazil Chile Costa Rica Ecuador Egypt Peru South Africa Thailand
38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54
List of Countries
37
Colombia
Key indicators

Percent of total

38
1,000
500 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
Rank (out of 133)
Score (17 scale)

3.9 3.9 4.2

4.5 4.3 3.7 4.1 4.3

3.1
3.1 2.7 2.0 2.9 4.7

4.4
5.1 4.6 5.6 4.4 5.5 2.7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

INDICATOR RANK/133

INDICATOR RANK/133




2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 Stringency of environmental regulation .......................66 ...I Enforcement of environmental regulation....................76 ...I Sustainability of T&T industry development.................53 ...I Carbon dioxide emissions* ..........................................42 ...I Particulate matter concentration* ................................32 ...I Threatened species* ..................................................120 ...I Environmental treaty ratification*...............................121 ...I

10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 Ticket taxes and airport charges*...............................117 ...I Purchasing power parity*.............................................58 ...I Extent and effect of taxation......................................103 ...I Fuel price levels* .........................................................28 ...I Hotel price index* ........................................................33 ...I

3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 Business costs of terrorism .......................................133 ...I Reliability of police services .........................................77 ...I Business costs of crime and violence........................118 ...I Road traffic accidents*...............................................109 ...I 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10







7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 Quality of roads ............................................................91 ...I Quality of railroad infrastructure...................................99 ...I Quality of port infrastructure ......................................108 ...I Quality of ground transport network ............................62 ...I Road density*...............................................................86 ...I
Colombia
39
Brazil
Key indicators
Population (millions), 2009..........................................................................193.7 Surface area (1,000 square kilometers) ...................................................8,514.9 Gross domestic product (US$ billions), 2009 ..........................................1,574.0 Gross domestic product (PPP, US$) per capita, 2009 ...........................10,513.8 Real GDP growth (percent), 2009.................................................................0.2 Environmental Performance Index, 2010 (out of 163 countries).....................62

Percent of total
GDP (US$ millions) ...........................................................38,847...................2.4 ....................4.2 Employment (1,000 jobs)....................................................2,179...................2.3 ....................3.0

6,000 5,000 International tourist arrivals (thousands) International tourism receipts (US$ millions)
40
4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
Rank (out of 133)
Score (17 scale)

4.3 4.3 4.1

4.0 5.0 3.4 4.2 4.1

3.5
3.8 2.6 4.0 3.1 4.2
T&T human, cultural, and natural resources .................................................4

5.4
5.2 5.0 5.3 4.4 6.4 5.6
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

INDICATOR RANK/133

INDICATOR RANK/133

1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 Prevalence of foreign ownership .................................80 ...I Property rights..............................................................70 ...I Business impact of rules on FDI ..................................82 ...I Visa requirements* ......................................................67 ...I Openness of bilateral Air Service Agreements* ..........37 ...I Transparency of government policymaking................101 ...I Time required to start a business*.............................128 ...I Cost to start a business* .............................................56 ...I

8.01 Hotel rooms*...............................................................n/a ...... 8.02 Presence of major car rental companies*....................23 ...I 8.03 ATMs accepting Visa cards* ........................................68 ...I


2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 Stringency of environmental regulation .......................40 ...I Enforcement of environmental regulation....................51 ...I Sustainability of T&T industry development...............104 ...I Carbon dioxide emissions* ..........................................50 ...I Particulate matter concentration* ................................41 ...I Threatened species* ..................................................100 ...I Environmental treaty ratification*.................................21 ...I

10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 Ticket taxes and airport charges*.................................88 ...I Purchasing power parity*.............................................97 ...I Extent and effect of taxation......................................133 ...I Fuel price levels* .........................................................62 ...I Hotel price index* ........................................................49 ...I

3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 Business costs of terrorism .........................................12 ...I Reliability of police services .......................................116 ...I Business costs of crime and violence........................122 ...I Road traffic accidents*...............................................123 ...I 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10

Primary education enrollment* ....................................58 ...I Secondary education enrollment*................................14 ...I Quality of the educational system..............................117 ...I Local availability of research and training services.......26 ...I Extent of staff training..................................................46 ...I Hiring and firing practices...........................................111 ...I Ease of hiring foreign labor ..........................................61 ...I HIV prevalence* ...........................................................85 ...I Business impact of HIV/AIDS.......................................71 ...I Life expectancy* ..........................................................66 ...I


5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 Government prioritization of the T&T industry...........113 ...I T&T government expenditure* ....................................77 ...I Effectiveness of marketing and branding.....................95 ...I T&T fair attendance* ....................................................25 ...I


6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 Quality of air transport infrastructure .........................101 ...I Available seat kilometers, domestic*.............................6 ...I Available seat kilometers, international* ......................18 ...I Departures per 1,000 population*................................62 ...I Airport density* ............................................................78 ...I Number of operating airlines*......................................32 ...I International air transport network ...............................68 ...I 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 Number of World Heritage natural sites* ......................6 ...I Protected areas* ..........................................................15 ...I Quality of the natural environment...............................58 ...I Total known species*.....................................................1 ...I


7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 Quality of roads ..........................................................110 ...I Quality of railroad infrastructure...................................86 ...I Quality of port infrastructure ......................................123 ...I Quality of ground transport network ............................69 ...I Road density*...............................................................77 ...I
Brazil
41
Chile
Key indicators
Population (millions), 2009............................................................................17.0 Surface area (1,000 square kilometers) ......................................................756.6 Gross domestic product (US$ billions), 2009 .............................................161.8 Gross domestic product (PPP, US$) per capita, 2009 ...........................14,340.9 Real GDP growth (percent), 2009.................................................................1.5 Environmental Performance Index, 2010 (out of 163 countries).....................16

Percent of total

42
2,000 1,500 1,000 500 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
Rank (out of 133)
Score (17 scale)

Policy rules and regulations..........................................................................19 Environmental sustainability..........................................................................64 Safety and security .........................................................................................38 Health and hygiene .........................................................................................66 Prioritization of Travel & Tourism..................................................................77
4.2 4.3 4.9

5.2 4.6 5.8 4.6 4.2

Air transport infrastructure ..........................................................................51 Ground transport infrastructure....................................................................57 Tourism infrastructure ....................................................................................69 ICT infrastructure ............................................................................................49 Price competitiveness in the T&T industry.................................................53
3.8
3.5 3.8 3.2 3.4 4.9

Human resources ............................................................................................47 Education and training .............................................................................63 Availability of qualified labor...................................................................25 Affinity for Travel & Tourism ........................................................................111 Natural resources ...........................................................................................63 Cultural resources...........................................................................................48
3.9
5.2 4.8 5.7 4.4 3.2 2.9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

INDICATOR RANK/133

INDICATOR RANK/133




2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 Stringency of environmental regulation .......................39 ...I Enforcement of environmental regulation....................24 ...I Sustainability of T&T industry development.................95 ...I Carbon dioxide emissions* ..........................................67 ...I Particulate matter concentration* ................................88 ...I Threatened species* ..................................................117 ...I Environmental treaty ratification*.................................21 ...I

10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 Ticket taxes and airport charges*.................................48 ...I Purchasing power parity*.............................................95 ...I Extent and effect of taxation........................................45 ...I Fuel price levels* .........................................................66 ...I Hotel price index* ........................................................26 ...I

3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 Business costs of terrorism .........................................27 ...I Reliability of police services .........................................16 ...I Business costs of crime and violence..........................84 ...I Road traffic accidents*.................................................75 ...I 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10



5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 Government prioritization of the T&T industry...........109 ...I T&T government expenditure* ....................................46 ...I Effectiveness of marketing and branding.....................98 ...I T&T fair attendance* ....................................................41 ...I


6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 Quality of air transport infrastructure ...........................24 ...I Available seat kilometers, domestic*...........................25 ...I Available seat kilometers, international* ......................42 ...I Departures per 1,000 population*................................46 ...I Airport density* ............................................................42 ...I Number of operating airlines*......................................70 ...I International air transport network ...............................20 ...I 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 Number of World Heritage natural sites* ....................74 ...I Protected areas* ..........................................................51 ...I Quality of the natural environment...............................52 ...I Total known species*...................................................55 ...I


7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 Quality of roads ............................................................22 ...I Quality of railroad infrastructure...................................73 ...I Quality of port infrastructure ........................................37 ...I Quality of ground transport network ............................35 ...I Road density*.............................................................102 ...I
Chile
43
Costa Rica
Key indicators
Population (millions), 2009..............................................................................4.6 Surface area (1,000 square kilometers) ........................................................51.1 Gross domestic product (US$ billions), 2009 ...............................................29.3 Gross domestic product (PPP, US$) per capita, 2009 ...........................10,579.3 Real GDP growth (percent), 2009.................................................................1.1 Environmental Performance Index, 2010 (out of 163 countries).......................3

Percent of total

GDP (US$ millions) .............................................................4,177.................14.4 ....................4.7 Employment (1,000 jobs).......................................................277.................14.0 ....................3.4
2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 International tourist arrivals (thousands) International tourism receipts (US$ millions)
44
Rank (out of 133)
Score (17 scale)

Policy rules and regulations..........................................................................48 Environmental sustainability..........................................................................27 Safety and security .........................................................................................72 Health and hygiene .........................................................................................65 Prioritization of Travel & Tourism..................................................................29
4.4 4.3 4.9

4.7 5.1 5.1 4.6 5.2

3.8
3.9 2.7 4.5 3.0 4.8

Human resources ............................................................................................24 Education and training .............................................................................31 Availability of qualified labor...................................................................10 Affinity for Travel & Tourism ..........................................................................27 Natural resources .............................................................................................6 Cultural resources...........................................................................................89
4.5
5.6 5.3 5.9 5.4 5.4 1.8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

INDICATOR RANK/133

INDICATOR RANK/133

1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 Prevalence of foreign ownership .................................10 ...I Property rights..............................................................71 ...I Business impact of rules on FDI ..................................17 ...I Visa requirements* ......................................................12 ...I Openness of bilateral Air Service Agreements* ............9 ...I Transparency of government policymaking..................52 ...I Time required to start a business*.............................115 ...I Cost to start a business* .............................................85 ...I


9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 Extent of business Internet use ...................................72 ...I Internet users* .............................................................45 ...I Telephone lines*...........................................................38 ...I Broadband Internet subscribers* .................................60 ...I Mobile telephone subscribers* ..................................104 ...I

2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 Stringency of environmental regulation .......................32 ...I Enforcement of environmental regulation....................34 ...I Sustainability of T&T industry development.................24 ...I Carbon dioxide emissions* ..........................................46 ...I Particulate matter concentration* ................................68 ...I Threatened species* ....................................................93 ...I Environmental treaty ratification*.................................52 ...I


3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 Business costs of terrorism .........................................59 ...I Reliability of police services .........................................84 ...I Business costs of crime and violence........................108 ...I Road traffic accidents*.................................................47 ...I 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10




12.01 Tourism openness* ......................................................24 ...I 12.02 Attitude of population toward foreign visitors..............31 ...I 12.03 Extension of business trips recommended .................53 ...I



7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 Quality of roads ..........................................................118 ...I Quality of railroad infrastructure.................................113 ...I Quality of port infrastructure ......................................128 ...I Quality of ground transport network ............................79 ...I Road density*...............................................................40 ...I
Costa Rica
45
Ecuador
Key indicators
Population (millions), 2009............................................................................13.6 Surface area (1,000 square kilometers) ......................................................283.6 Gross domestic product (US$ billions), 2009 ...............................................57.3 Gross domestic product (PPP, US$) per capita, 2009 .............................7,880.7 Real GDP growth (percent), 2009...................................................................0.4 Environmental Performance Index, 2010 (out of 163 countries).....................30

Percent of total
GDP (US$ millions) ................................................................931...................1.6 ....................4.2 Employment (1,000 jobs).........................................................83...................1.4 ....................3.4

International tourist arrivals (thousands), 2009......................970 International tourism receipts (US$ millions), 2008 ..............742
46
800 600 400 200 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
Rank (out of 133)
Score (17 scale)
2009 Index ...........................................................................................................96 2008 Index............................................................................................................86 T&T regulatory framework ............................................................................103

Policy rules and regulations........................................................................126 Environmental sustainability..........................................................................86 Safety and security .........................................................................................99 Health and hygiene .........................................................................................73 Prioritization of Travel & Tourism................................................................106
3.6 3.7 4.0

3.2 4.2 4.5 4.4 3.7

2.9
2.7 2.4 2.1 2.4 5.0

Human resources ............................................................................................98 Education and training ...........................................................................101 Availability of qualified labor...................................................................97 Affinity for Travel & Tourism ........................................................................117 Natural resources ...........................................................................................19 Cultural resources...........................................................................................71
3.9
4.6 4.0 5.1 4.2 4.7 2.2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

INDICATOR RANK/133

INDICATOR RANK/133

1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 Prevalence of foreign ownership ...............................121 ...I Property rights............................................................125 ...I Business impact of rules on FDI ................................130 ...I Visa requirements* ......................................................70 ...I Openness of bilateral Air Service Agreements* ..........34 ...I Transparency of government policymaking................130 ...I Time required to start a business*.............................117 ...I Cost to start a business* ...........................................100 ...I


9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 Extent of business Internet use .................................118 ...I Internet users* .............................................................87 ...I Telephone lines*...........................................................82 ...I Broadband Internet subscribers* .................................66 ...I Mobile telephone subscribers* ....................................71 ...I

2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 Stringency of environmental regulation .....................109 ...I Enforcement of environmental regulation..................109 ...I Sustainability of T&T industry development...............110 ...I Carbon dioxide emissions* ..........................................55 ...I Particulate matter concentration* ................................40 ...I Threatened species* ..................................................118 ...I Environmental treaty ratification*.................................34 ...I

10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 Ticket taxes and airport charges*...............................123 ...I Purchasing power parity*.............................................27 ...I Extent and effect of taxation........................................91 ...I Fuel price levels* .........................................................12 ...I Hotel price index* ........................................................13 ...I

3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 Business costs of terrorism .........................................68 ...I Reliability of police services .......................................125 ...I Business costs of crime and violence........................112 ...I Road traffic accidents*.................................................68 ...I 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10

Primary education enrollment* ....................................36 ...I Secondary education enrollment*................................97 ...I Quality of the educational system..............................125 ...I Local availability of research and training services.....110 ...I Extent of staff training................................................119 ...I Hiring and firing practices...........................................122 ...I Ease of hiring foreign labor ..........................................90 ...I HIV prevalence* ...........................................................67 ...I Business impact of HIV/AIDS.......................................72 ...I Life expectancy* ..........................................................55 ...I


5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 Government prioritization of the T&T industry...........118 ...I T&T government expenditure* ....................................53 ...I Effectiveness of marketing and branding...................106 ...I T&T fair attendance* ....................................................81 ...I

12.01 Tourism openness* ....................................................109 ...I 12.02 Attitude of population toward foreign visitors............107 ...I 12.03 Extension of business trips recommended ...............109 ...I



7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 Quality of roads ..........................................................100 ...I Quality of railroad infrastructure.................................116 ...I Quality of port infrastructure ......................................109 ...I Quality of ground transport network ..........................109 ...I Road density*...............................................................85 ...I
Ecuador
47
Egypt
Key indicators

Percent of total

GDP (US$ millions) ...........................................................25,673.................13.6 ....................5.8 Employment (1,000 jobs)....................................................2,636.................11.4 ....................3.2
International tourist arrivals (thousands), 2009.................11,914 International tourism receipts (US$ millions), 2009 .........10,755
48
9,000 6,000 3,000 0 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
Rank (out of 133)
Score (17 scale)

Policy rules and regulations..........................................................................55 Environmental sustainability........................................................................103 Safety and security .........................................................................................67 Health and hygiene .........................................................................................64 Prioritization of Travel & Tourism....................................................................9
4.1 4.0 4.8

4.6 4.1 5.1 4.6 5.8

Air transport infrastructure ..........................................................................58 Ground transport infrastructure....................................................................79 Tourism infrastructure ....................................................................................74 ICT infrastructure ............................................................................................84 Price competitiveness in the T&T industry...................................................1
3.6
3.3 3.2 3.0 2.4 6.0

Human resources ............................................................................................83 Education and training .............................................................................83 Availability of qualified labor...................................................................75 Affinity for Travel & Tourism ..........................................................................20 Natural resources .........................................................................................109 Cultural resources...........................................................................................60
3.8
4.9 4.4 5.4 5.4 2.5 2.5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

INDICATOR RANK/133

INDICATOR RANK/133




2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 Stringency of environmental regulation .....................103 ...I Enforcement of environmental regulation..................120 ...I Sustainability of T&T industry development.................38 ...I Carbon dioxide emissions* ..........................................54 ...I Particulate matter concentration* ..............................125 ...I Threatened species* ....................................................80 ...I Environmental treaty ratification*.................................34 ...I

10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 Ticket taxes and airport charges*.................................34 ...I Purchasing power parity*...............................................4 ...I Extent and effect of taxation........................................34 ...I Fuel price levels* ...........................................................3 ...I Hotel price index* ..........................................................4 ...I

3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 Business costs of terrorism .........................................72 ...I Reliability of police services .........................................52 ...I Business costs of crime and violence..........................23 ...I Road traffic accidents*...............................................111 ...I 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10

Primary education enrollment* ....................................63 ...I Secondary education enrollment*................................65 ...I Quality of the educational system..............................126 ...I Local availability of research and training services.......92 ...I Extent of staff training..................................................96 ...I Hiring and firing practices.............................................91 ...I Ease of hiring foreign labor ..........................................39 ...I HIV prevalence* .............................................................1 ...I Business impact of HIV/AIDS.......................................32 ...I Life expectancy* ..........................................................89 ...I


5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 Government prioritization of the T&T industry.............33 ...I T&T government expenditure* ....................................20 ...I Effectiveness of marketing and branding.....................49 ...I T&T fair attendance* ......................................................3 ...I

12.01 Tourism openness* ......................................................27 ...I 12.02 Attitude of population toward foreign visitors..............54 ...I 12.03 Extension of business trips recommended ...................6 ...I

6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 Quality of air transport infrastructure ...........................52 ...I Available seat kilometers, domestic*...........................40 ...I Available seat kilometers, international* ......................26 ...I Departures per 1,000 population*................................99 ...I Airport density* ..........................................................117 ...I Number of operating airlines*......................................20 ...I International air transport network ...............................73 ...I 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 Number of World Heritage natural sites* ....................40 ...I Protected areas* ..........................................................75 ...I Quality of the natural environment.............................131 ...I Total known species*...................................................70 ...I

14.01 14.02 14.03 14.04 Number of World Heritage cultural sites* ...................26 ...I Sports stadiums* .......................................................109 ...I Number of international fairs and exhibitions* ............51 ...I Creative industries exports*........................................n/a ......

7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 Quality of roads ............................................................74 ...I Quality of railroad infrastructure...................................54 ...I Quality of port infrastructure ........................................69 ...I Quality of ground transport network ............................67 ...I Road density*.............................................................106 ...I
Egypt
49
Peru
Key indicators

Percent of total

50
1,500 1,000 500 0 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
Rank (out of 133)
Score (17 scale)

3.9 3.9 4.2

4.5 4.3 4.3 3.6 4.6

3.0
2.6 2.2 2.5 2.5 4.9

Human resources ............................................................................................71 Education and training .............................................................................77 Availability of qualified labor...................................................................50 Affinity for Travel & Tourism ..........................................................................85 Natural resources .............................................................................................8 Cultural resources...........................................................................................42
4.4
5.0 4.5 5.5 4.6 5.2 2.9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

INDICATOR RANK/133

INDICATOR RANK/133

1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 Prevalence of foreign ownership .................................19 ...I Property rights............................................................102 ...I Business impact of rules on FDI ..................................30 ...I Visa requirements* ......................................................10 ...I Openness of bilateral Air Service Agreements* ............7 ...I Transparency of government policymaking..................96 ...I Time required to start a business*.............................117 ...I Cost to start a business* .............................................88 ...I



2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 Stringency of environmental regulation .......................95 ...I Enforcement of environmental regulation..................102 ...I Sustainability of T&T industry development.................70 ...I Carbon dioxide emissions* ..........................................38 ...I Particulate matter concentration* ................................93 ...I Threatened species* ..................................................112 ...I Environmental treaty ratification*.................................52 ...I


3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 Business costs of terrorism .......................................102 ...I Reliability of police services .......................................122 ...I Business costs of crime and violence........................113 ...I Road traffic accidents*.................................................88 ...I 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10

Primary education enrollment* ....................................42 ...I Secondary education enrollment*................................46 ...I Quality of the educational system..............................132 ...I Local availability of research and training services.......86 ...I Extent of staff training..................................................93 ...I Hiring and firing practices.............................................93 ...I Ease of hiring foreign labor ..........................................20 ...I HIV prevalence* ...........................................................78 ...I Business impact of HIV/AIDS.......................................81 ...I Life expectancy* ..........................................................55 ...I

4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 Physician density*........................................................80 ...I Access to improved sanitation* ...................................85 ...I Access to improved drinking water*............................92 ...I Hospital beds*............................................................107 ...I





7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 Quality of roads ............................................................99 ...I Quality of railroad infrastructure...................................90 ...I Quality of port infrastructure ......................................127 ...I Quality of ground transport network ..........................120 ...I Road density*.............................................................114 ...I
Peru
51
South Africa
Key indicators
Population (millions), 2009............................................................................50.1 Surface area (1,000 square kilometers) ...................................................1,219.1 Gross domestic product (US$ billions), 2009 .............................................287.2 Gross domestic product (PPP, US$) per capita, 2009 ...........................10,243.6 Real GDP growth (percent), 2009.................................................................1.8 Environmental Performance Index, 2010 (out of 163 countries)...................115

Percent of total

10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 International tourist arrivals (thousands) International tourism receipts (US$ millions)
52
Rank (out of 133)
Score (17 scale)

4.1 4.1 4.3

5.0 4.8 3.5 3.8 4.4

3.8
3.9 3.6 4.0 2.6 5.0

Human resources ..........................................................................................112 Education and training .............................................................................48 Availability of qualified labor.................................................................131 Affinity for Travel & Tourism ..........................................................................43 Natural resources ...........................................................................................22 Cultural resources...........................................................................................45
4.2
4.2 5.0 3.5 5.0 4.6 2.9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

INDICATOR RANK/133

INDICATOR RANK/133


8.01 Hotel rooms*................................................................91 ...I 8.02 Presence of major car rental companies*......................1 ...I 8.03 ATMs accepting Visa cards* ........................................45 ...I


2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 Stringency of environmental regulation .......................47 ...I Enforcement of environmental regulation....................57 ...I Sustainability of T&T industry development.................16 ...I Carbon dioxide emissions* ........................................101 ...I Particulate matter concentration* ................................28 ...I Threatened species* ....................................................94 ...I Environmental treaty ratification*.................................34 ...I


3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 Business costs of terrorism .........................................36 ...I Reliability of police services .......................................108 ...I Business costs of crime and violence........................133 ...I Road traffic accidents*...............................................117 ...I 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10

Primary education enrollment* ....................................97 ...I Secondary education enrollment*................................44 ...I Quality of the educational system..............................110 ...I Local availability of research and training services.......29 ...I Extent of staff training..................................................15 ...I Hiring and firing practices...........................................128 ...I Ease of hiring foreign labor ........................................122 ...I HIV prevalence* .........................................................131 ...I Business impact of HIV/AIDS.....................................132 ...I Life expectancy* ........................................................120 ...I


5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 Government prioritization of the T&T industry.............18 ...I T&T government expenditure* ..................................124 ...I Effectiveness of marketing and branding.....................17 ...I T&T fair attendance* ....................................................41 ...I

12.01 Tourism openness* ......................................................78 ...I 12.02 Attitude of population toward foreign visitors..............49 ...I 12.03 Extension of business trips recommended ...................8 ...I



7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 Quality of roads ............................................................40 ...I Quality of railroad infrastructure...................................37 ...I Quality of port infrastructure ........................................49 ...I Quality of ground transport network ..........................126 ...I Road density*...............................................................64 ...I
South Africa
53
Thailand
Key indicators
Population (millions), 2009............................................................................67.8 Surface area (1,000 square kilometers) ......................................................513.1 Gross domestic product (US$ billions), 2009 .............................................263.9 Gross domestic product (PPP, US$) per capita, 2009 .............................8,059.8 Real GDP growth (percent), 2009.................................................................2.3 Environmental Performance Index, 2010 (out of 163 countries).....................67

Percent of total

GDP (US$ millions) ...........................................................36,446.................13.9 ....................5.9 Employment (1,000 jobs)....................................................3,959.................10.5 ....................2.2
International tourist arrivals (thousands), 2009.................14,091 International tourism receipts (US$ millions), 2009 .........15,901
54
10,000
5,000 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
Rank (out of 133)
Score (17 scale)

4.4 4.4 4.5

4.5 4.1 3.9 4.4 5.3

4.1
4.5 3.8 4.3 2.7 5.4

Human resources ............................................................................................57 Education and training .............................................................................60 Availability of qualified labor...................................................................56 Affinity for Travel & Tourism ..........................................................................22 Natural resources ...........................................................................................24 Cultural resources...........................................................................................33
4.7
5.2 4.8 5.5 5.4 4.5 3.8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

INDICATOR RANK/133

INDICATOR RANK/133




2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 Stringency of environmental regulation .......................54 ...I Enforcement of environmental regulation....................53 ...I Sustainability of T&T industry development.................21 ...I Carbon dioxide emissions* ..........................................72 ...I Particulate matter concentration* ..............................108 ...I Threatened species* ..................................................103 ...I Environmental treaty ratification*...............................104 ...I


3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 Business costs of terrorism .......................................107 ...I Reliability of police services .........................................71 ...I Business costs of crime and violence..........................50 ...I Road traffic accidents*...............................................120 ...I 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10

Primary education enrollment* ....................................61 ...I Secondary education enrollment*................................85 ...I Quality of the educational system................................53 ...I Local availability of research and training services.......58 ...I Extent of staff training..................................................51 ...I Hiring and firing practices.............................................39 ...I Ease of hiring foreign labor ........................................100 ...I HIV prevalence* .........................................................107 ...I Business impact of HIV/AIDS.......................................97 ...I Life expectancy* ..........................................................66 ...I

4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 Physician density*......................................................104 ...I Access to improved sanitation* ...................................44 ...I Access to improved drinking water*............................47 ...I Hospital beds*..............................................................77 ...I


12.01 Tourism openness* ......................................................31 ...I 12.02 Attitude of population toward foreign visitors..............13 ...I 12.03 Extension of business trips recommended .................11 ...I

6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 Quality of air transport infrastructure ...........................28 ...I Available seat kilometers, domestic*...........................20 ...I Available seat kilometers, international* ......................11 ...I Departures per 1,000 population*................................76 ...I Airport density* ............................................................85 ...I Number of operating airlines*......................................13 ...I International air transport network ...............................26 ...I 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 Number of World Heritage natural sites* ....................23 ...I Protected areas* ..........................................................30 ...I Quality of the natural environment.............................104 ...I Total known species*...................................................17 ...I

14.01 14.02 14.03 14.04 Number of World Heritage cultural sites* ...................65 ...I Sports stadiums* .......................................................110 ...I Number of international fairs and exhibitions* ............27 ...I Creative industries exports*.........................................15 ...I

7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 Quality of roads ............................................................32 ...I Quality of railroad infrastructure...................................48 ...I Quality of port infrastructure ........................................48 ...I Quality of ground transport network ............................31 ...I Road density*...............................................................98 ...I
Thailand
55
The data used in this paper are taken from The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009. They represented the best available estimates from various national authorities, international agencies, and private sources at the time the Report was prepared. Throughout the country profiles in this publication, n/a denotes that the value is not available, or that available data are unreasonably outdated or do not come from a reliable source. The following notes provide sources for the hard data used in the calculation of the T&T Competitiveness Index 2009.
Pillar 2: Environmental sustainability

2.04 Carbon dioxide emissions
Carbon dioxide emissions per capita in metric tons, 2004 According to the World Bank, carbon dioxide emissions are those emanating from burning of fossil fuels and the manufacture of cement. They include carbon dioxide produced during consumption of solid, liquid, and gas fuels and gas flaring. Source: The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2008
2.05 Particulate matter concentration

Urban populationweighted PM10 micrograms per cubic meter, 2005 According to the World Bank, particulate matter concentrations refer to fine suspended particulates less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10) that are able to penetrate deep into the respiratory tract and cause significant health damage. Data for countries are urban populationweighted PM10 levels in residential areas of cities with more than 100,000 residents. The estimates represent the average annual exposure level of the average urban resident to outdoor particulate matter. Source: The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2008
Pillar 1: Policy rules and regulations

1.04 Visa requirements
Number of countries whose citizens are exempt from obtaining a visa (= 1) or able to obtain one upon arrival (= 0.5) out of all UN countries, 2008 This variable is based on visitor visa requirements of all UN countries. The score refers to the number of UN countries whose citizens are exempt from obtaining a visa to enter each country. In compiling the data, each country that requires no visa at all receives a 1 and each country for which it is possible to obtain a visa upon arrival receives 0.5. Those countries for which a visa is required prior to departure would receive a 0. The sum across all UN countries produces the final score for each economy. Source: United Nations World Tourism Organization
2.06 Threatened species

Threatened species as a percentage of total species (mammals, birds, amphibians), 2008 This variable measures the total number of Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable species as a percentage of total known species for mammals, birds, and amphibians. Source: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Red List of Threatened Species 2008
1.05 Openness of bilateral Air Service Agreements

Index of openness of bilateral Air Service Agreements, 2005 This index measures the average openness of all bilateral Air Service Agreements (ASAs) concluded by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) signatories as registered in ICAOs Worlds Air Services Agreements (WASA) database (2005 update), weighted by bilateral scheduled passenger traffic taking place under each ASA. Regulatory data come from ICAOs WASA database (2005) and traffic data were obtained from IATA. Source: World Trade Organization
2.07 Environmental treaty ratification

Total number of ratified environmental treaties, 2008 This variable measures the total number of international treaties from a set of 25 for which a state is a participant. A state becomes a participant by Ratification, Formal confirmation, Accession, Acceptance, Definitive signature, Approval, Simplified procedure, Consent to be bound, Succession, and Provisional application (which are here grouped under the term ratification, for reasons of convenience). The treaties included are: International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, 1948 Washington; International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil, 1954, as amended in 1962 and 1969, 1954 London; Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat, 1971 Ramsar; Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage,1972 Paris; Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, 1972 London, Mexico City, Moscow, Washington; Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, 1973 Washington; International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) as modified by the Protocol of 1978, 1978 London; Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, 1979 Bonn; United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 Montego Bay; Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer, 1985 Vienna; Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, 1987 Montreal; Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, 1989 Basel; International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation, 1990 London; United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,
1.07 Time required to start a business

Number of days required to start a business, 2008 According to the World Bank, this variable measures the median duration that incorporation lawyers indicate is necessary to complete a procedure with minimum follow up with government agencies and no extra payments. Source: The World Bank, Doing Business 2009
1.08 Cost to start a business

Cost to start a business as a percentage of GNI per capita, 2008 According to the World Bank, this variable measures all official fees and fees for legal or professional services if such services are required by law. Source: The World Bank, Doing Business 2009
57
1992 New York; Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992 Rio de Janeiro; International Convention to Combat Desertification in those countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, particularly Africa, 1994 Paris; Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982, 1994 New York; Agreement relating of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Lay of the Sea relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, 1995 New York; Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on the Climate Change, Kyoto 1997; Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, 1998 Rotterdam; Cartagena Protocol of Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2000 Montreal; Protocol on Preparedness, Response and Cooperation to Pollution Incidents by Hazardous and Noxious Substances, 2000 London; Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, 2001 Stockholm; International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, 2001 Rome; International Tropical Timber Agreement 206, 2001 Geneva. Source: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Environmental Law Centre ELIS Treaty Database
4.04 Hospital beds

Hospital beds per 10,000 population, 2006 or most recent year available Source: World Health Organization, WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS) (May 2008); national sources
Pillar 5: Prioritization of Travel & Tourism

5.02 T&T government expenditure
T&T government expenditure as a percentage of total budget, 2008 This measure includes expenditures (transfers or subsidies) made by government agencies to provide T&T services such as cultural (e.g., art museums), recreational (e.g., national parks) or clearance (e.g., immigration/customs) assistance, and so on to visitors. Source: World Travel & Tourism Council, Tourism Satellite Accounting Research 2008
5.04 T&T fair attendance

Index of country presence at 13 major T&T fairs, 20072008 This index was constructed as follows: a country was given a 1 for each time it was represented at one of the 13 Travel & Tourism fairs below that took place during the period August 2007July 2008. The score is the sum of all fairs at which the country was represented. The fairs included were: ITB Berlin, Salon Mondial du Tourisme (France), World Travel Market (London), Holiday World Prague, International Trade Fair for Tourism (Russia), Arabian Travel Market (Dubai), PATA Travel Mart (Pacific Asia Travel Association), China International Travel Mart, Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) World Travel Fair, Travel and Tourism Fair (India), American Society of Travel Agents Trade Show, Travel Mart Latin America, and the International Tourism Fair of Latin America. Source: Booz & Company
Pillar 3: Safety and security

3.04 Road traffic accidents
Estimated deaths per 100,000 population due to road traffic accidents, 2002 Source: World Health Organization, World Health Statistics 2007
58
Pillar 4: Health and hygiene

4.01 Physician density
Physician density per 1,000 people, 2006 or most recent year available This variable measures the number of physicians per 1,000 people in the country. The World Bank defines physicians as graduates of any faculty of medicine who are working in the country in any medical field (practice, teaching, research). Source: World Health Organization, Global Atlas of the Health Workforce (March 2008 update); The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2008; national sources
Pillar 6: Air transportation infrastructure

6.02 Available seat kilometers, domestic
Scheduled available seat kilometers per week originating in country (in millions), January and July 2008 average This variable measures an airlines passenger-carrying capacity; it is composed of the number of seats available on each flight multiplied by the flight distance in kilometers. The resulting variable is an average of the total for all scheduled flights in a week during January (winter schedule) and July (summer schedule) 2008. Source: International Air Transport Association, SRS Analyser; national sources
4.02 Access to improved sanitation

Access to adequate sanitation as a percentage of total population, 2006 This variable refers to the percentage of the population with at least adequate access to excreta disposal facilities that can effectively prevent human, animal, and insect contact with excreta. Improved facilities range from simple but protected pit latrines to flush toilets with a sewerage connection. To be effective, facilities must be correctly constructed and properly maintained. Source: World Health Organization, World Health Statistics 2008
6.03 Available seat kilometers, international

Scheduled available seat kilometers per week originating in country (in millions), January and July 2008 average This variable measures an airlines passenger-carrying capacity; it is composed of the number of seats available on each flight multiplied by the flight distance in kilometers. The resulting variable is an average of the total for all scheduled flights in a week during January (winter schedule) and July (summer schedule) 2008. Source: International Air Transport Association, SRS Analyser; national sources
4.03 Access to improved drinking water

Access to safe drinking water as a percentage of total population, 2006 This variable refers to the percentage of the population with reasonable access to an adequate amount of water from an improved source, such as a household connection, public standpipe, borehole, protected well or spring, or rain-water collection. Unimproved sources include vendors, tanker trucks, and unprotected wells and springs. Reasonable access is defined as the availability of at least 20 liters per person per day from a source within 1 kilometer of the dwelling. Source: World Health Organization, World Health Statistics 2008
6.04 Departures per 1,000 population

Number of departures per 1,000 population, 2006 Aircraft departures are the number of domestic and international take-offs of air carriers per year registered in the country. Source: Booz & Company; national sources
6.05 Airport density

Number of airports per million population, 2007 Number of airports with at least one scheduled flight in 2007 per million population. Source: International Air Transport Association, SRS Analyser; national sources
9.04 Broadband Internet subscribers

Broadband Internet subscribers per 100 population, 2007 The International Telecommunication Union considers broadband to be any dedicated connection to the Internet of 256 kilobits per second or faster, in both directions. Broadband subscribers refers to the sum of DSL, cable modem, and other broadband (for example, fiber optic, fixed wireless, apartment LANs, satellite connections) subscribers. Source: International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Indicators 2008
6.06 Number of operating airlines

Number of airlines with scheduled flights originating in country, January 2008 and July 2008 average Source: International Air Transport Association, SRS Analyser
9.05 Mobile telephone subscribers

Mobile telephone subscribers per 100 population, 2007 The term subscribers refers to users of mobile telephones subscribing to an automatic public mobile telephone service that provides access to the public switched telephone network using cellular technology. This can include analogue and digital cellular systems but should not include non-cellular systems. Subscribers to fixed wireless, public mobile data services, or radio paging services are not included. Source: International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Indicators 2008
Pillar 7: Ground transport infrastructure

7.05 Road density
Kilometers of road per 100 square kilometers of land, 2005 or most recent year available According to the World Bank, this variable refers to the ratio of the length of the countrys total road network to the countrys land area. The road network includes all roads in the country: motorways, highways, main or national roads, secondary or regional roads, and other urban and rural roads. Source: The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2008
Pillar 10: Price competitiveness in the T&T industry

10.01 Ticket taxes and airport charges
Index of relative cost of access (ticket taxes and airport charges) to international air transport services | (0 = highest cost, 100 = lowest cost), 2008 This index measures the relative cost of access to international air transport services based on the level of airport charges, passenger ticket taxes, and value-added taxation. It reflects the costs associated with a narrow-body and a wide-body passenger plane arrival and departure at the major international airports in each country. Charges include landing, terminal navigation, and passenger and security charges as listed in the IATA Airport and Air Navigation Charges manual. Ticket taxes applicable to international travel were applied as described in the IATA List of Ticket and Airport Taxes and Fees manual. Per-passenger charges were calculated by applying a 75 percent load factor to a typical seating configuration of each type of aircraft. Valueadded taxes (VATs) were calculated based on an average ticket price for each country, applied to half of the departing passengers, because the VAT is normally charged only on itineraries originating in the country concerned. A higher score indicates a lower level of charges and taxes. Source: International Air Transport Association, SRS Analyser
Pillar 8: Tourism infrastructure

8.01 Hotel rooms
Number of hotel rooms per 100 population, 2007 or most recent year available Source: United Nations World Tourism Organization
8.02 Presence of major car rental companies

Index of presence of major car rental companies, 2008 This variable measures the presence of seven major car rental companies: Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, National Car Rental, Sixt, and Thrifty. Source: Individual rental car websites
8.03 ATMs accepting Visa cards

Number of automated teller machines (ATMs) accepting Visa credit cards per million population, 2007 Source: Visa International
10.02 Purchasing power parity
Pillar 9: ICT infrastructure

9.02 Internet users (hard data)
Internet users per 100 population, 2007 Internet users are people with access to the worldwide network. Source: International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Indicators 2008
9.03 Telephone lines

Telephone lines per 100 population, 2007 A main telephone line is a telephone line connecting the subscribers terminal equipment to the public switched telephone network and that has a dedicated port in the telephone exchange equipment. Source: International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Indicators 2008
Ratio of purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factor to official exchange rate, 2007 The purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factors for 2007 were obtained from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)s World Economic Outlook (October 2008). The official exchange rates for 2007 were obtained from the IMFs International Financial Statistics Online and from the World Banks World Development Indicators 2008. The World Bank defines the purchasing power parity conversion factor as the number of units of a countrys currency required to buy the same amount of goods and services in the domestic market as a US dollar would buy in the United States. Official exchange rate refers to the exchange rate determined by national authorities or to the rate determined in the legally sanctioned exchange market. It is calculated as an annual average based on monthly averages (local currency units relative to the US dollar). The variable shown is the result obtained by dividing the PPP conversion factor by the official exchange rate. Source: The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2008; International Monetary Fund, International Financial Statistics (October 2008) and World Economic Outlook (October 2008); Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Federal Reserve Statistical Release (January 2008); national sources; authors calculations
59
10.04 Fuel price levels

Retail diesel fuel prices (US cents per liter), 2006 According to the World Bank, this variable refers to the pump prices of the most widely sold grade diesel fuel. Prices are converted from the local currency to the US dollar. Source: The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2008
Pillar 12: Affinity for Travel & Tourism

12.01 Tourism openness
Tourism expenditure and receipts as a percentage of GDP, 2007 This variable is the ratio of the sum of international tourism expenditures and receipts to GDP. International tourism expenditures are expenditures of international outbound visitors in other countries, including payments to foreign carriers for international transport.International tourism receipts are expenditures of international inbound visitors in other countries, including payments to foreign carriers for international transport. Source: United Nations World Tourism Organization
10.05 Hotel price index

Average room rates calculated for first-class branded hotels for calendar year in US$, 2007 This index measures the average price, in US dollars, of first-class hotel accommodation in each country. The index is calculated by using the average room rate achieved by first-class hotels in each country over a 12-month period from January through December 2007, to mitigate the impact of any seasonality fluctuations. Source: Deloitte
Pillar 13: Natural resources

13.01 Number of World Heritage natural sites
Number of World Heritage natural sites in the country, September 2008 Source: UNESCO, World Heritage Centre, (August 2008)
Pillar 11: Human resources

11.01 Primary education enrollment
Net primary education enrollment rate, 2006 or most recent year available According to the World Bank, this corresponds to the ratio of children of official school age (as defined by national educational system) who are enrolled in school to the population of the corresponding official school age. Primary education provides children with basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills along with an elementary understanding of such subjects as history, geography, natural science, social science, art, and music. Source: UNESCO, Institute for Statistics (June 2008); The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2008; national sources
13.02 Protected areas

Protected areas as a percentage of total land area, 2007 According to the IUCN, a protected area is an area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means. Source: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre World Database on Protected Areas
60
13.04 Total known species

Total known species (mammals, birds, amphibians) in the country, 2008 This variable measures the total known species of mammals, birds, and amphibians. Source: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Red List of Threatened Species 2008
11.02 Secondary education enrollment

Gross secondary education enrollment rate, 2006 or most recent year available According to the World Bank, the gross secondary enrollment rate is the ratio of total enrollment, regardless of age, to the population of the age group that officially corresponds to the secondary education level. Secondary education completes the provision of basic education that began at the primary level, and aims at laying the foundations for lifelong learning and human development, by offering more subject- and skill-oriented instruction using more specialized teachers. Source: UNESCO, Institute for Statistics (June 2008); The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2008; national sources
Pillar 14: Cultural resources

14.01 Number of World Heritage cultural sites
Number of World Heritage cultural sites and Oral & Intangible Heritage, September 2008 Source: UNESCO, World Heritage Centre; UNESCO, Intangible Cultural Heritage (August 2008)
11.08 HIV prevalence

HIV prevalence as a percentage of adults aged 1549 years, 2007 or most recent year available Source: UNAIDS, 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic; UNDP, Human Development Report 2007/2008; national sources
14.02 Sports stadiums

Sports stadium capacity per million population, 2008 This variable is calculated as the ratio of total seats for all major sports stadiums in the country to the total population (in millions). Source: Booz & Company
11.10 Life expectancy

Life expectancy at birth (years), 2006 Source: World Health Organization, WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS) (May 2008); UNDP, Human Development Report 2007/2008 online database (May 2008); national sources
14.03 Number of international fairs and exhibitions

Number of international fairs and exhibitions held in the country annually, 20052007 average This variable measures the average number of international fairs and exhibitions held annually in each country between 2005 and 2007. Data on international fairs and exhibitions were obtained from the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), which includes meetings organized by international associations attended by at least 50 participants that take place on a regular basis (one-time events are not included) and rotate between a minimum of three countries. Source: International Congress and Convention Association
14.04 Creative industries exports

Exports of creative industries products as a share of world total in such exports, 2006 This variable measures the countrys share of total world exports of the following Creative Industries products: art crafts such as carpets, celebration articles, paperware, wickerware, yarn; films; architecture; fashion; glassware; jewelry; music; books, newspapers, and other written materials; antiques, paintings, photography, sculpture. Data were obtained from the Creative Industries database and HS 96 codes were used. Source: UNCTAD, Creative Economy and Industries Programme
61
The World Economic Forum would like to thank the following organizations for their invaluable support of this paper.
Acknowledgments
63
COMMITTED TO IMPROVING THE STATE OF THE WORLD
The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a foundation in 1971, and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests. (www.weforum.org)

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COMMITTED TO IMPROVING THE STATE OF THE WORLD

Gauging the Competitiveness of the Travel & Tourism Sector in Colombia

Part 2: Country Profiles

Colombia's Country Profile

Comparator Country Profiles

Technical Notes and Sources

Insights from the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index

Insights from the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index

Insights from the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index

Tourism industry employment

5,050 2,713 1,354 1,923 970 11,914 2,140 7,012 14,091

5,305 1,568 2,000 2,075 742 10,755 2,046 7,543 15,901

1,050 578 1,477 1,079 765 903 956 1,076 1,128

38,847 2,242 4,194 1,695 931 14,033 3,754 8,481 16,388

2.4 1.3 1.8 5.8 1.6 7.4 2.9 2.9 6.2

2,179 108 341 119 83 1,448 367 389 1,869

2.3 1.6 1.6 6.0 1.4 6.3 2.8 2.9 4.9

Figure 1: Colombias international tourist arrivals, 19952009

International tourist arrivals (thousands)

Source: United Nations World Tourism Organization.

Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index

Policy rules and regulations

Air transport infrastructure

Ground transport infrastructure

Affinity for Travel & Tourism

Safety and security

Health and hygiene Prioritization of Travel & Tourism

ICT infrastructure Price competitiveness in the T&T industry

Source: World Economic Forum, 2009.

Insights from the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index

Insights from the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index

Figure 3: Hard and Survey data composition of the TTCI 2009

G Survey data, 28 variables (38%) G Hard data, 45 variables (62%)

Source: World Economic Forum, 2009.

Figure 4: Colombias performance in the TTCI, 2008 and 2009

Source: World Economic Forum, 2008, 2009.

Insights from the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index

Insights from the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index

Table 2: TTCI 2009: Colombia and selected comparators

Table 3: T&T regulatory framework: Colombia and selected comparators

72 38 67 118 128 108 125 130 99

Latin America and the Caribbean

Source: World Economic Forum, 2009.

56 64 103 57 79 110 108 125 119

Source: World Economic Forum, 2009.

108 22 27 85 104 43 117 111 20

Source: World Economic Forum, 2009.

Table 6: The TCCI heatmap for Colombia

6a: Difference in scores

Subindex C: T&T human, cultural, and natural resources

Colombia scores higher

Comparator scores higher

1.18 +0.89 2.98 0.21 0.21 +0.13 +0.33 0.27 +0.50

Count of pillars where Colombia scores higher

Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2009

Subindex A: T&T regulatory framework

Price competitiveness in the T&T industry

Prioritization of Travel & Tourism

Ground transport infrastructure

Policy rules and regulations

Affinity for Travel & Tourism

Air transport infrastructure

Health and hygiene

Colombia Travel & Tourism White Paper 2010

Colombia Travel & Tourism White Paper 2010