According to an evaluation of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Germany's travel and tourism industry is among the most competitive in the world. The study, which is published every two years, was presented during the WEF Africa Conference in Cape Town.
Thanks to its good infrastructure and a strong cultural environment , the list of WEF published on Wednesday places Germany third among the 140 countries surveyed. However, the study also confirms comparatively high prices for the German industry and rather low values for safety and security in most regions.
- In Europe , Spain and France are ahead of Germany, the United Kingdom slipped to sixth place, also among the top places are Italy (rank 8), Switzerland (10), Austria (11) and Portugal (12).
- Asia is in the lead with Japan (4), Australia (7) and China (13), Hong Kong as region (14) and South Korea (16),
- America with the USA (5), Canada (9) and Mexico (19).
- North Africa and the Middle East are first on the list with the United Arab Emirates (33), Qatar (51), Israel (57) and Oman (58).
- Sub- Saharan Africa is the laggard in tourism. Apart from the three states of Mauritius (rank 54), South Africa (61) and the Seychelles (62), the 36 countries surveyed there were all below the global average. However, Africa is forecasting the second highest growth rates of the next decade in the study.
Ranking of the tourism industries - Top Ten
| rank | country | continent |
| 1 | Spain | Europe |
| 2 | France | Europe |
| 3 | Germany | Europe |
| 4 | Japan | Asia |
| 5 | United States | America |
| 6 | Great Britain | Europe |
| 7 | Australia | Asia |
| 8th | Italy | Europe |
| 9 | Canada | America |
| 10 | Switzerland | Europe |
Source: The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2019 of the World Economic Forum
The industry as a whole contributed around 10 percent to global value creation and about the same share of global employment - a share that is expected to rise sharply over the next decade, especially in Asia with its steadily growing middle class.
Last year, global travel reached around 1.4 billion visitors, surpassing all forecasts. If the numbers continued to grow at that rate, the authors of the study estimate that 1.8 billion visitors in 2030 are more conservative. Faced with the pressure of rapid growth in the top destinations, they are warning against tipping the trend. The so-called overtourism could pose a risk.
On Wednesday, the 28th WEF Africa Conference with around 1,100 participants began in the South African tourist capital Cape Town.