A new report put out by the World Economic Forum has ranked which countries are the unfriendliest to travelers with some interesting results.
CNN reported that the "Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013" has ranked 140 countries according to a number of things including competitiveness and attractiveness to the tourism and travel industries.
One of the most interesting rankings and one that was analyzed extensively was how welcome tourists felt in different countries. Thie was categorized in the category of "Attitude of population toward foreign visitors."
The rankings were interested and somewhat suprising with unassuming Bolivia taking the high schore of 4.1 out of 7. 0 being "very unwelcome" and 7 being "very welcome."Venezuala and Russia also ranked high on the unfriendliest scale.
The friendliest countries? Iceland and New Zealand were ranked the friendliest places 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.'" Reported CNN.
The report used data from the World Economic Forum's Executive Opinion Survey and they also used data from private sources and international and national agencies and organizations including
"ICAO, IATA, UNWTO, World Bank/International Finance Corporation, IUCN, WHO and UNESCO," reported CNN.
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
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
