Saw an interesting bit on CNN about tourist friendly or unfriendly countries: Spoiler: Worlds Unfriendliest Nations For Tourists World's unfriendliest nations for tourists? By Frances Cha, CNN updated 4:06 AM EDT, Thu March 14, 2013 (CNN) -- When traveling, some countries just don't like you. Or at least, it can certainly feel that way. A new report, put out earlier this month by the World Economic Forum, has ranked which countries roll out the welcome mat to travelers 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. Unwelcoming Among the extensive analyses, one of the most interesting rankings was how welcome tourists are in each country, under the category "Attitude of population toward foreign visitors." And the world's most unfriendly country, according to the data? Bolivia took the dubious honor, scoring a 4.1 out of seven on a scale of "very unwelcome" (0) to "very welcome" (7). Venezuela and the Russian Federation were next. Interestingly, despite their huge tourist arrivals, South Korea and China tied with four other countries for the eighth least friendly spot. At the other end of the scale, Iceland and New Zealand were ranked the world's most welcoming nations for visitors. You can see a top 10 for friendliest and unfriendliest at the bottom of this article. Strengths and weaknesses The "friendly" ranking was just one aspect of the report, analyzing each country's competitiveness in travel and tourism. That competitiveness is "based on the extent to which they are putting in place the factors and policies to make it attractive to develop the travel and tourism sector." In the overall Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, Europe was the top region with the first five positions all held by European countries. Switzerland, Germany and Austria were the top three in that order. Switzerland has headed the ranking since the index began five years ago. Excellent tourism infrastructure and facilities, business travel appeal, sustainable development of natural resources and rich cultural resources were among the key factors in landing the highest positions in the rankings. Safety/security, underdeveloped infrastructure and concerns about sustainable development were among the factors bringing down countries' competitiveness. Haiti scored the lowest on the competitiveness index. The United States (6th) topped the combined Americas, Singapore (10th) just pushed out Australia and New Zealand to lead the Asia Pacific region, the United Arab Emirates (28th) was the highest performer in the Middle East and the Seychelles (38th) overtook Mauritius to head Africa. The report emphasized the need for continued development in the travel and tourism sector particularly for its role in job creation in a relatively stagnant global economy. The industry currently accounts for one in 11 jobs in the world. The report used data compiled from the World Economic Forum's Executive Opinion Survey and hard data from private sources and national and international agencies and organizations such as the ICAO, IATA, UNWTO, World Bank/International Finance Corporation, IUCN, WHO and UNESCO. Who are the world's best tourists? The world's coolest nationalities: Where do you rank? Attitude of population toward foreign visitors (1 = very unwelcome; 7 = very welcome) Friendliest 1. Iceland 6.8 2. New Zealand 6.8 3. Morocco 6.7 4. Macedonia, FYR 6.7 5. Austria 6.7 6. Senegal 6.7 7. Portugal 6.6 8. Bosnia and Herzegovina 6.6 9. Ireland 6.6 10. Burkina Faso 6.6 Unfriendliest 1. Bolivia 4.1 2. Venezuela 4.5 3. Russian Federation 5.0 4. Kuwait 5.2 5. Latvia 5.2 6. Iran 5.2 7. Pakistan 5.3 8. Slovak Republic 5.5 9. Bulgaria 5.5 10. Mongolia 5.5 Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/14/travel/friendly-countries/index.html?iid=article_sidebar And here's another 2012 report from Forbes: Spoiler: The Worlds Rudest Nations For Travelers 4/03/2012 11:49AM The World's Rudest Nations For Travelers Liberté, Égalité, Rudité. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Congratulations, my fellow Americans! We’re not the rudest nation on the planet. We’re not even in the top 5. USA! USA! The travel search site Skyscanner.com surveyed its users about where the locals never smile and people are particularly unfriendly, and the nation with the most votes for rudest locals was… Wait for it… France (félicitations, mes amis!), followed by Russia. The survey received over 1,200 responses, 65 percent from the UK and Ireland, plus elsewhere in Europe, North America and Australia. Rounding out the top five rudest countries were the UK, Germany and “Other” (those Others are the worst, don’t you think?). The US placed 7th, behind China. Some of the perceived rudeness may be attributable to cultural differences rather than anything intentional. For example, says Tatiana Danilova, Skyscanner’s Russian Market Manager, “the Russian language is not as polite as English, so when Russians translate directly from Russian to English, it can sound rude to an English speaker even if they don’t mean it to.” “We were surprised to see Russians come in second place,” says Skyscanner’s Travel Editor, Sam Baldwin. He attributes this in part to the “familiarity breeds contempt” phenomenon. Although Russia doesn’t compare with the Mediterranean as a tourist destination, as visa regulations have relaxed, Russian holidaymakers are increasingly flocking to the Mediterranean and coming into contact with people from other countries. The same principle may apply to the French: “As our closest neighbors, there has long been a familiar rivalry between the UK and France,” Baldwin says, and the preponderance of responses from the British Isles may have contributed to this result. Still, Baldwin says, “Even the French acknowledge that the way they are perceived is not entirely without basis.” (In France’s defense, I’ve always found Parisians to be just as rude to each other as they are to foreigners. Outside of Paris – and even within the city – people can be as gracious as anywhere.) The British, for their part, voted themselves “world’s worst tourists” in a previous Skyscanner survey. The countries rated as having the least rude locals were Brazil, the Caribbean and the Philippines. Skyscanner claims to be Europe’s leading travel search site, operating in over 25 languages with over 25 million visits and over 11 million unique visitors per month. It has offices in Edinburgh, Scotland and Singapore. Here’s the complete list of responses: Nationality Percentage of votes French 19.29 Russian 16.56 British 10.43 German 9.93 Other 6.37 Chinese 4.3 American 3.39 Spanish 3.15 Italian 2.24 Polish 2.24 Turkish 2.15 Indian 1.9 Swiss 1.9 Greek 1.74 Croatian 1.57 Austrian 1.41 Cypriot 1.24 Egyptian 1.24 Korean 1.24 Norwegian 0.99 Australian 0.91 Dutch 0.83 Irish 0.83 Swedish 0.83 Japanese 0.66 Danish 0.5 Canadian 0.41 New Zealander 0.41 Indonesian 0.41 Portuguese 0.33 Thai 0.25 Filipino 0.17 Caribbean 0.08 Brazilian 0.08 Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewbender/2012/04/03/the-worlds-rudest-nations-for-travelers/
