World’s Best Tourism and Travel Countries; Japan Rules, Australia Rises, and Canada Falls

The World Economic Forum has come out with its biannual list of the world’s best countries for tourism and travel. And the news isn’t great for Canada.

The highly respected group looks at factors and policies that enable sustainable and resilient development in the travel and tourism space, under broad pillars like air transport structure, price competitiveness and safety and security and then comes up with a Travel and Tourism Development Index.

Japan, which is seemingly near the top of everyone’s travel list these days, came out on top, rising from number three last year. The U.S. was second (the same as 2024), while Spain fell from first place two years ago to third this time around.

Australia, like Japan, jumped up two spots this year, rising from sixth to fourth. And that’s pretty impressive.

But the news isn’t so great for Canada, which dropped a full three spots and sits in the 14th position this year. 

Sydney Harbour and the Sydney Opera House, Australia. JIM BYERS PHOTO

Here’s a look at the top 25, with corresponding index scores.

1. JAPAN, 5.27
2. USA, 5.23
3. SPAIN, 5.22
4. AUSTRALIA, 5.18
5. FRANCE, 5.17
6. GERMANY 5.09
7. UNITED KINGDOM, 5.08
8. CHINA, 5.00
9. SWITZERLAND, 4.97
10. ITALY, 4.93
11. PORTUGAL, 4.91
12. SOUTH KOREA, 4.90
13. SINGAPORE 4.89
14. CANADA, 4.85
15. AUSTRIA, 4.72
16. DENMARK, 4.70
17. NETHERLANDS, 4.69
18. SWEDEN, 4.68
19. FINLAND, 4.50
20. IRELAND, 4.57
21. GREECE, 4.57
22. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, 4.56
23. INDONESIA, 4.56
24. BELGIUM, 4.53
25. NEW ZEALAND, 4.51

This isn’t a ranking based on beauty or popularity, but I’d still be a tad concerned if I was in charge of Canadian tourism. The folks in Japan and Australia, on the other hand, should be very happy with this study.

WESTJET TRIMS EUROPE ROUTES

Canadian travellers are losing several WestJet flights to Europe. Published reports say the airline next summer will no longer fly between Toronto and Glasgow. They’re also cancelling Halifax-Madrid and Halifax-Copenhagen.

There also are reports that Icelandair is dumping its Halifax-Reykhavik route, which is another blow to travellers in Atlantic Canada.

UNDERRATED EUROPEAN CITIES

It may be a tad harder for some people to get there next summer, but Europe is full of great cities that don’t get as much credit as they may deserve. MSN Travel reports that the people who published the Rough Guides series have come up with a list of ten great European cities that are underrated but worth exploring. I don’t know all of them, but I’m a big fan of Ljubljana, Slovenia and Liverpool (yeah, yeah, yeah).

The Beatles statue in Liverpool, England. Neil Martin/Unsplash Photo

Here’s the Rouge Guides list:

1. Aarhus, Denmark
2. Ghent, Belgium
3. La Rochelle, France
4. Liverpool, UK (cool museums, and home of The Beatles. What more could you want?)
5. Ljubljana, Slovenia (such a pretty city)
6. Porto, Portugal
7. Poznan, Poland
8. Riga, Latvia
9. Seville, Spain
10. Stuttgart, Germany