India climbs nine places in WEF travel and tourism index; Japan tops list, US second

India has ranked 31st among 110 economies in the World Economic Forum's Travel & Tourism Development Index (TTDI) 2026, climbing nine places from its 2024 position.

India scored 4.42 out of 7 in the latest index as its score improved 4.3% from 2024. It was ranked 40th in the previous edition based on the recalculated figures used by the WEF.

Japan led the rankings with a score of 5.27, followed by the United States at 5.23 and Spain at 5.22. Australia, France, Germany, the UK, China, Switzerland and Italy completed the top 10.

The top 20 were dominated by advanced economies, with China the only exception in the top 10.

The WEF said the leading economies generally benefit from established tourism sectors, extensive visitor infrastructure, strong international connectivity and developed business and visitor services.

The WEF identified India among the 10 largest non-high-income travel and tourism economies by direct tourism GDP, alongside China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Türkiye, Mexico and Brazil.

Collectively, these economies account for more than 28% of global direct travel and tourism GDP, a share projected to rise to 35% by 2035.

The WEF said these major emerging tourism economies have been gaining ground, with their average TTDI score rising 4.7% since 2019, compared with 2.9% for all economies and 1.9% for the top 20.

The report said India combines a highly cost-competitive travel environment with rich cultural resources, abundant natural assets and well-distributed tourism demand.

"Rapid improvements in tourism infrastructure, cultural assets and business travel resources have helped drive one of the largest gains among major tourism economies," it added.

India, China and Mexico are also among the top 10 economies by the number of UNESCO World Heritage cultural sites.

India, China, Brazil and Mexico together account for more than 17% of UNESCO World Heritage natural sites among economies covered by the index.

However, the report points to a gap in tourist services and infrastructure between major emerging tourism economies and the leading 20 economies.

The WEF said this is the largest difference separating the two groups.

Ninety-two per cent of the 110 economies recorded an improvement in their TTDI score between 2024 and 2026, while the average score rose 2.1%, the fastest pace of improvement since 2019.

Asia-Pacific recorded the strongest regional improvement, with its average TTDI score rising 3.6% between 2024 and 2026. The region's average score stood at 4.29, compared with 4.39 for Europe and Eurasia, which remained the highest-performing region.