#Bolivia and #Venezuela ranked world’s unfriendliest countries for tourists - #Switzerland tops the rankings for overall quality of travel infrastructure

Among the extensive analyses, one of the most interesting rankings was how welcome tourists are in each country, under the category “Attitude of population toward foreign visitors”.
And according to this rating Bolivia took the dubious honour, scoring a 4.1 out of seven on a scale of “very unwelcome” (0) to “very welcome” (7). Venezuela and the Russian Federation were next. Interestingly, despite their huge tourist arrivals, South Korea and China tied with four other countries for the eighth least friendly spot.
At the other end of the scale, Iceland and New Zealand were ranked the world’s most welcoming nations for visitors.
The “friendly” ranking was just one aspect of the report, analyzing each country’s competitiveness in travel and tourism. That competitiveness is “based on the extent to which they are putting in place the factors and policies to make it attractive to develop the travel and tourism sector.”
In the overall Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index Europe was the top region with the first five positions all held by European countries: Switzerland, Germany and Austria in the top three and in that order. Switzerland has headed the ranking since the index began five years ago.

The report used data compiled from the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey and hard data from private sources and national and international agencies and organizations such as the ICAO, IATA, UNWTO, World Bank/International Finance Corporation, IUCN, WHO and UNESCO.

Attitude of population toward foreign visitors:
(1 = very unwelcome; 7 = very welcome)

Friendliest:
1. Iceland 6.8
2. New Zealand 6.8
3. Morocco 6.7
4. Macedonia, FYR 6.7
5. Austria 6.7
6. Senegal 6.7
7. Portugal 6.6
8. Bosnia and Herzegovina 6.6
9. Ireland 6.6
10. Burkina Faso 6.6
 
Unfriendliest:
1. Bolivia 4.1
2. Venezuela 4.5
3. Russian Federation 5.0
4. Kuwait 5.2
5. Latvia 5.2
6. Iran 5.2
7. Pakistan 5.3
8. Slovak Republic 5.5
9. Bulgaria 5.5
10. Mongolia 5.5

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InterAmerican Security Watch – Monitoring Threats to Regional Stability » Blog Archive » Bolivia and Venezuela ranked world’s unfriendliest countries for tourists; overall bad score for Mercosur