NDA (II) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 131 of 150

Correct — B, 40th. The World Economic Forum's Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017, released in April 2017 a few months before this September examination, placed India 40th among the 136 economies it assessed. That was a rise of twelve places from 52nd in the 2015 edition, the largest single jump made by any country then inside the top fifty, and it put India ahead of every other South Asian economy, with Bhutan and Nepal next in the region. Spain topped the table for the second edition running, followed by France.

• (a)50th — Close to India's position in the previous edition rather than this one. India stood 52nd in the 2015 report; the point of the 2017 news story was precisely that it had climbed away from the fifties.
• (c)30th — Too high for 2017. India did reach the mid-thirties later — 34th of 140 in the 2019 edition — but had not done so at the time of this paper.
• (d)20th — Far too high. The top twenty in 2017 was occupied almost entirely by western European economies together with the United States, Japan, Australia and China; India's weak scores on health, hygiene and environmental sustainability kept it well outside that group.

The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index is a composite ranking published by the World Economic Forum, the same Geneva-based body behind the Global Competitiveness Report and the Global Gender Gap Report. It scores economies on pillars such as the business environment, safety and security, health and hygiene, human resources, information technology readiness, air and ground transport infrastructure, price competitiveness, natural and cultural resources, and the priority a government gives to tourism.

For a rankings question the useful memory hook is the direction of travel, not the bare number. India's story in this index was a steady climb through the second half of the 2010s driven mainly by price competitiveness and by its stock of natural and cultural resources, offset by poor scores on health and hygiene. As of the September 2017 examination the current figure was 40th of 136. It has moved since: India was 34th of 140 in the 2019 report, and from 2021 the exercise was rebranded the Travel and Tourism Development Index, which placed India 54th of 117 — a change of methodology and sample as much as of performance, so the two series should not be compared as if they were one.

• India ranked 40th of 136 economies in the WEF Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index 2017.
• That was a twelve-place rise from 52nd in the 2015 edition.
• Spain topped the 2017 index for the second consecutive time, with France second.
• India led South Asia in that edition, followed by Bhutan and Nepal.
• The index was rebranded the Travel and Tourism Development Index from 2021, when India was placed 54th of 117.

• Attributing the index to the World Tourism Organization; it is the World Economic Forum that publishes it.
• Quoting a later rank for an earlier year — the number moves almost every edition.
• Treating the post-2021 Development Index ranking as continuous with the older Competitiveness Index.

Index questions come either as which body publishes it or as India's rank in a named year, so learn the pair together.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report is published by

  • (a)United Nations World Tourism Organization
  • (b)World Economic Forum
  • (c)Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
  • (d)World Bank

  Answer(b) World Economic Forum — the same body that publishes the Global Competitiveness and Global Gender Gap reports.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index 2017, which country was placed first?

  • (a)France
  • (b)Japan
  • (c)Spain
  • (d)United States

  Answer(c) Spain — first for the second consecutive edition, with France in second place.