Competitiveness of tourism and the evaluation of Turkey according international tourism competitive criteria

Abstract

According to the data obtained from World Tourism Organization (WTO) in 2009, Turkiye ranked 8th with 25 million visitors and 9th with an income 22 billion US dollars among the countries ranking top ten in tourism industry. This success cannot be undermined for a country which became aware of the importance of tourism industry in 1980s and accelerated the investments from then on. Unfortunately, Turkiye hasn’t been able to repeat the success it attained in tourism income and number of visitors in T&T (tourism and travel) competitiveness. According to the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index published annually by World Economic Forum (WEF), Turkiye ranked 56th among 133 countries. Taking this evaluation into consideration, it is obvious that Turkiye has to attain considerable advancement in T&T competitiveness. Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index consists of 3 main titles and 16 sub-titles. The aim of this study is to evaluate Turkiye in accordance with all the titles in the competitiveness index, handle in detail the following issues in which Turkiye had a weak performance; environmental sustainability (104), price competitiveness in T&T industry (109) and to create a discussion atmosphere in order for Turkiye to repeat the success it attained in tourism income and visitors in T&T competitiveness index.