Switzerland has the globe's most competitive travel and tourism sector owing to high quality transportion and hotels, skilled workers and rich natural resources, the Swiss-based World Economic Forum said Thursday. In a biennial, 140-country ranking of competitiveness in the world's travel and tourism trade, the WEF said the Swiss had retained the top slot held in all five previous editions.
Switzerland's selling points continued to help it offset its relatively high prices, which would push it far down the rankings if they were the only factor, the Geneva-based think tank underlined. Overall, Europe remained the world's most competitive region, with Germany, Austria, Spain and Britain coming hard on Switzerland's heels. The rest of the WEF's top 10 was made up by the United States, France, Canada, Sweden and Singapore. The WEF noted that the travel and tourism industry had managed to remain relatively resilient despite the gloomy global economic picture.