In the category of “price competitiveness”, however, Vietnam slipped from the third-cheapest tourism destination in Southeast Asia in 2015 to the third most-expensive in 2017, according to the WEF’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI).

Despite no change in its score of 5.3 points in the last two years, Vietnam became a costly destination due to the significant improvements in neighboring countries, especially Laos, which rose from 4.9 points to 5.7 points. The average score in Southeast Asia is 5.5 points. Vietnam, with 5.3 point, is still considered among the cheapest destinations in the world.

The WEF report evaluates travel destinations under 14 criteria. Vietnam is highly evaluated in terms of “natural resources”, “cultural resources”, “competitive prices”, and “qualified service human resources”. Though Vietnam was not highly regarded in “IT infrastructure”, it recorded a significant improvement in its score, rising 17 levels to 80th position in the world, mainly due to 3G covering 94 per cent of the country.

The report also noted the criteria that is pulling back Vietnam’s tourism competitiveness rating as being “environmental sustainability” (where it ranked 129th in the world), “high emissions” (128th), “deforestation” (103rd), and “water treatment” (107th).

The five leading competitive countries in the TTCI are Spain, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK. The report is published every two years and evaluates countries’ competitiveness and sustainability as tourism destinations.

The global travel and tourism industry contributed $7.6 trillion to the global economy in 2016 (10.2 per cent of global GDP) and created 292 million jobs (one-tenth of all global jobs).