MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Bolivia and Venezuela ranked world's unfriendliest countries for tourists; overall bad score for Mercosur
A new report, put out earlier this month by the World Economic Forum, has ranked which countries roll out the welcome mat to travellers and which give the cold shoulder. The “Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013” ranked 140 countries according to attractiveness and competitiveness in the travel and tourism industries. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesAn amazing read, you can find out a lot more here:
Mar 16th, 2013 - 04:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.weforum.org/issues/travel-and-tourism-competitiveness
I quote:
“Argentina... places 61st overall” ”Argentina has strong natural resources (20th), with four World Heritage sites and very diverse fauna. The country also benefits from a relatively high airport density, abundant seat kilometers, and a number of operating airlines, although the quality of air transport continues to be highlighted as a problem area (ranked 113rd). There is a mixed picture in the area of policy rules
and regulations: on one hand, there have been some improvements such as greater openness in bilateral Air Service Agreements (25th). On the other hand, there are still concerns about property rights (132nd), and rules on FDI do not encourage investment (138th). Further, the quality of its ground transport remains underdeveloped (120th) and environmental regulation is neither sufficiently stringent (ranked 102th) nor well enforced (ranked 129th).“
And for comparison:
”Australia, which improves by two places and is now at 11th position overall. Australia’s T&T competitiveness continues to be characterized by a number of clear strengths, including its rich natural resources and the highest number of World Heritage natural sites in the world, benefiting from diverse fauna and a comparatively pristine natural environment.“ ”And given the country’s distance from other continents
and the related importance of domestic air travel to overcome the large distances between major sites, its competitiveness is also buttressed by excellent air transport infrastructure (ranked 4th) as well as good general tourism infrastructure (ranked 20th). Australia also sees some improvements in the policy rules and regulations affecting the sector, especially its increased openness in bilateral Air Service Agreements. In terms of visa requirements, Australia has one of the most advanced visa policies in the world”
That's how you manage an export sector.
When I visited Russia about ten years ago, they constantly tried to charge me double for everything because I was a tourist. It was the most corrupt country I'd been too and I know nothing has changed, if anything it's become worse since then. Once I became wise to their behaviour, I spent the rest of the holiday pretending to be Russian and saved loads of money. The country needs another revolution, quickly.
Mar 16th, 2013 - 08:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0I actually found Chile and Uruguay to be very welcoming. Argentina should be in the bottom 10 worst countries. Brazil was mediocre.
Mar 16th, 2013 - 09:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0I agree with all of the observations on the lack of planning and infrastructure in Argentina but I have to say that I have always had excellent experiences with ordinary people, hoteliers and restaurant staff.
Mar 16th, 2013 - 01:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@3 I agree with you on Uruguay - lovely, open, enquiring people.
A bit surprising that Venezuela rates such a dismal #113 and it might be due in part to the nature of the kind of composite indexing that is done: Venezuela's Caribbean coastal and islands attractions are vastly outweighed by the omni-present concern for security, in light of Venezuela's #5 world ranking in homicides “express kidnappings”, robbery, etc.
Mar 16th, 2013 - 02:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Austral.....I agree with you. My worst experiences in Argentina were with the taxi's and occasionally asking for a receipt as some, a lot do not like to give them for tax reasons.....a life threatening experience.....lol. But I never had issues with ordinary people, hoteliers and the restaurant staff any time I am there.
Mar 16th, 2013 - 02:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I don't know how you can rate the friendliness of a country. It depends on so much, including one's own attitude. 99.9% of people I meet when travelling are friendly and polite if you are friendly and polite. The people that are downright unpleasant really are few and far between.
Mar 16th, 2013 - 04:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0That said, I just met a snake whilst walking back to my casita that was not at all friendly!
The opposite of 'friendly' is not necessarily 'unfriendly' ... it might be 'reserved'.
Mar 17th, 2013 - 06:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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