Reinterpreting the World Economic Forum's global tourism competitiveness index

• Analysing the variables that determine the competitiveness of tourism is a challenge that researchers are facing recently.
• The TTCI, published by the WEF, has been subject of methodological criticism, such as the arbitrary weighting of variables.
• This paper uses an alternative methodology for calculating this index and analyses the new ranking obtained.
• The results obtained enable the development of a ranking of countries substantially different from that obtained by the WEF.
• These results would allow policymakers and destination managers to develop specific actions that improve deficient aspects.

The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index, published by the World Economic Forum since 2007 provides information about the relative position of each country in terms of tourism competitiveness, through a set of indicators, grouped into pillars. This index has been the subject of some methodological criticism, such as the arbitrary weighting of variables. This study uses an alternative methodology for calculating this index based on two points of reference to propose a new standardisation, which takes an aspiration and reservation level for each pillar; subsequently, a synthetic index that measures the state of the pillar in the worst position, as well as other alternative indices, is calculated. The results obtained enable the development of a ranking of countries substantially different from that obtained by the World Economic Forum, which permits further adjustment of the weighting of each pillar and the measurement of various degrees of tourism competitiveness.