Turkiye, which ranked 49th in 2019, now climbed four spots to 45th place in the latest index.
“The picture looked very different two years later, as COVID-19 lockdowns hit the travel and tourism sector hard. In 2020 alone, it faced losses of $4.5 trillion and 62 million jobs, impacting the living standards and well-being of communities across the globe,” WEF said in a statement.
“International tourist arrivals rose by 18 million in January 2022 compared with a year earlier. This equals the increase for the whole of 2021 from 2020, but January’s numbers were still 67% below the same month in 2019, according to the UNWTO,” it added.
Japan came on top of the 2021 index, followed by the US, Spain, France and Germany, according to the index that was released on Tuesday.
Indonesia was the most improved country, climbing up 12 spots to rank 32nd, while Malaysia dropped the most, nine spots to 38th place.
The WEF said TTDI 2021, which covers 117 countries, was collected before the war in Ukraine, therefore it removed the Russian Federation and Ukraine from the ranking, saying data for these economies no longer reflects current or longer-term trends and conditions.
Some of the organizations that helped to create the index included the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
