WEF Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009
Singapore Ranked Top in Asia

Singapore has been ranked as the highest-ranked country in Asia, and 10th out of 133 countries measured for the attractiveness of their environments in developing the travel and tourism industry, according to the World Economic Forum’s latest Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009.
“We are pleased to have improved our ranking in the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009 to be among the top 10 countries globally and the only Asian country in the top 10 out of 133 countries. This is an indication of Singapore’s strengths in its tourism management and infrastructure. It will in turn strengthen our efforts to ride out the current downturn and position ourselves for future growth”, said John Gregory Conceicao, Director, Strategic Planning, Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
Improving six places from its overall ranking last year in the 2008 report, Singapore was placed first for its policy environment, indicating that its rules and regulations are highly conducive to the development of its travel and tourism industry. Such policies include those that facilitate foreign ownership and Foreign Direct Investment, well-protected property rights, few visa restrictions and transparency of policy making. Singapore also came in first in human resources, scoring high in the quality of its education system, extent of staff training, ease of hiring foreign labour, as well as hiring and firing practices. According to the report, an excellent educational system, top-notch training facilities, healthy workforce, and flexible labour market are key factors contributing to Singapore’s good performance in this area.
Singapore also benefited from its excellent transport infrastructure, with ground transport infrastructure, air transport infrastructure and air networks being ranked highly. Its Info-Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure has also seen a measurable improvement since last year.