Korea ranks 12th in the world in tourism development index... One step up from two years ago

3rd place in Asia after Japan and China… Improving tourism sustainability and weak price competitiveness

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Koo Jeong-mo = Korea's tourism development level was ranked 12th among 110 countries in the world, up one notch from the previous survey in 2023.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute announced on the 8th that Korea ranked 12th overall in the '2025 Tourism Development Index' announced by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

This is a ranking that rose one place from 13th in 2023.

In Asia, it was the third highest after Japan (1st) and China (8th), ahead of Singapore (13th), Indonesia (23rd), and Malaysia (26th).

The overall world ranking was Japan, followed by the United States, Spain, Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, China, Switzerland, and Italy.

The Tourism Development Index is an index published by the World Economic Forum every two years to evaluate the conditions for the continued development of the tourism industry in each country. It consists of 102 detailed indicators in 5 areas, 17 sectors, including environment creation, tourism policy and foundation creation, infrastructure and services, tourism resources, and tourism sustainability.

In this evaluation, Korea's rankings rose in all five areas compared to 2023.

In particular, the tourism sustainability sector showed the greatest improvement, rising 7 places from 20th to 13th.

Tourism resources rose two places from 16th to 14th, while environment creation (18th), tourism policy and infrastructure (47th), and infrastructure and services (25th) each rose one place.

Among 17 sectors, the level of information and communication technology (ICT) preparedness ranked first in the world, while land and port transportation infrastructure (9th), cultural resources (10th), and non-leisure resources (9th) were also in the top 10.

Of the 102 detailed indicators, 27 were ranked in the world's top 10, and six indicators, including organized violence, basic sanitation facility utilization, basic drinking water utilization, hospital bed density, energy efficiency regulations, and timeliness of providing monthly and quarterly tourism statistics, ranked first.

In particular, the seasonality of overseas tourist arrivals rose 29 places from 33rd in 2023 to 4th last year, showing the largest improvement among all detailed indicators.

This means that the phenomenon of foreign tourists entering the country concentrating on specific seasons has been alleviated.

On the other hand, looking at detailed indicators in the field of tourism policy and infrastructure development, purchasing power parity ranked only 78th, and major detailed indicators such as short-term rental accommodation prices (57th), fuel prices (55th), and hotel prices (51st) all ranked outside the top 50.

The proportion of tourism spending compared to the government budget (76th), local hospitality reputation index (65th), and number of air service agreements (62nd) also received relatively low ratings.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism explained that this shows the need for improvements in tourism policy, such as securing the tourism policy budget, expanding aviation liberalization, and expanding friendly and hospitality services.

The Korea Culture and Tourism Institute assessed that Korea's overall score in the tourism development index was 4.90 points, showing a slight difference from Italy (4.92 points), which ranked 10th, and Portugal (4.91 points), which ranked 11th, indicating that Korea's entry into the world's top 10 was visible.

Kang Jeong-won, head of the Tourism Policy Department at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, "We will analyze in detail the pros and cons of K-tourism through not only the comprehensive ranking of the tourism development index announced this time, but also the results for each detailed field and sector. We will develop areas where we have secured excellent competitiveness while supplementing areas that need improvement."