Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021

The Travel & Tourism Development Index (TTDI) 2021 evolves from the previous Competitiveness Index to emphasize sustainability and resilience in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions. Japan ranks first globally, while the Europe and Eurasia and Asia-Pacific regions dominate the top rankings. The report identifies a shift in demand toward domestic and nature-based tourism, alongside challenges such as labour shortages, supply-chain disruptions, and the need for improved environmental sustainability and socioeconomic resilience to ensure long-term sector growth.

• Japan is the top-ranked economy in the 2021 Travel & Tourism Development Index, followed by the United States in second place.
• The global travel and tourism sector experienced a severe economic contraction in 2020, losing $4.5 trillion in GDP and 62 million jobs.
• Overall TTDI scores remained relatively stagnant between 2019 and 2021, with an average increase of only 0.1%.
• The recovery of the sector is uneven, driven by differences in vaccination rates; as of May 8, 2022, 75% of people in high-income economies were vaccinated compared to 52% in lower-middle-income and 13% in low-income economies.
• There has been a significant shift toward domestic tourism; the share of domestic spending in travel and tourism increased from 50.8% in 2019 to 62.6% in 2020 across the 117 covered economies.
• Demand for nature-based tourism has grown, evidenced by a 20.8% average increase in 'natural tourism Digital Demand' (online searches for natural wonders and outdoor activities).
• The sector faces critical supply-side constraints, including widespread labour shortages in advanced economies, with staff shortfalls estimated between 9% and 18% in 2021 for countries including the US, UK, France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal.
• Environmental sustainability remains a major risk; among the 30 economies in the top quartile for natural resources, 17 score below the global average for environmental sustainability.
• The 'Non-Leisure Resources' pillar saw one of the largest declines in average performance (-1.9%), reflecting a slower rebound in business travel compared to leisure travel.
• Digitalization is a key driver for recovery, with the ICT Readiness pillar showing the most improvement (+3.0%) since 2019, particularly in low- and middle-income economies.
• The Europe and Eurasia region is the top-performing region overall, though it was the only region to see a slight decrease in its average score (-0.5%) since 2019.
• Sub-Saharan Africa showed the greatest average improvement in performance (+1.1%) since 2019, although it remains the furthest below the global average (-18.4%).

APA

World Economic Forum (2022). Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Travel_Tourism_Development_2021.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021. 2022. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Travel_Tourism_Development_2021.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021 |date=May 2022 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Travel_Tourism_Development_2021.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2022travel, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Travel \& Tourism Development Index 2021}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2022}, month = may, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Travel_Tourism_Development_2021.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }