Sri Lanka among world’s 10 fastest-improving tourism economies: WEF

• WEF’s Travel and Tourism Development Index 2026 ranks island 10th globally for score improvement with 4.3% gain, as global tourism posts its strongest growth since pandemic

Sri Lanka has been ranked among the world’s 10 fastest-improving economies for travel and tourism development, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) 2026, released last week in collaboration with Zurich Insurance Group.

The country placed 10th on the Index’s list of fastest improvers, recording a 4.3% gain in its TTDI score between 2024 and 2026, placing it alongside Albania, Vietnam, Laos, Qatar, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Morocco, and Nepal as the 10 economies posting the largest score improvements globally over the two-year period.

Albania topped the fastest-improvers list with a 7% score gain, followed by Vietnam (+6.3%), Laos (+6.1%), Qatar (+6%), Malaysia (+5.8%), Thailand (+5.6%), the Philippines and Morocco (+5.5% each), and Nepal (+5.1%), with Sri Lanka rounding out the top 10 at +4.3%.

The recognition comes as the TTDI’s broader findings point to a tourism sector in unusually strong health. International tourist arrivals reached a record 1.5 billion globally in 2025, with the sector contributing an all-time high of $ 11.6 trillion to global GDP, more than double its 2019 contribution and supporting 366 million jobs worldwide, or roughly one in every 10 jobs on the planet.

Of the 110 economies ranked in this year’s index, 92% improved their score compared with 2024, with the average score rising 2.1%, the fastest pace of improvement recorded since 2019.

Sri Lanka’s inclusion reflects a broader regional trend, as seven of the 10 fastest-improving economies in this year’s TTDI are from the Asia-Pacific region, which posted overall growth of 3.6%, alongside the Middle East and North Africa at 2.5%, both comfortably outpacing the global average. 

The report notes that the largest emerging tourism economies have improved their scores more than twice as fast as the top 20 ranked countries since 2019, benefitting from competitive pricing, rich natural assets, and increasingly sustainable demand patterns.

While Sri Lanka features among the fastest risers, the top of the overall index remains dominated by established destinations. Japan claimed the number one position this year, overtaking the US, driven by a record 42.7 million international visitors in 2025 and a deliberate strategy to diversify visitor flows beyond its major hubs. The US, Spain, Australia, and France rounded out the top five, with European nations continuing to dominate the upper rankings overall.

What’s driving the improvement

Across the Index’s 17 measurement pillars, the strongest global gains came in cultural resources, tourism infrastructure and services, and air connectivity. Cultural resource scores rose 9.6% worldwide, partly attributed to an expanding UNESCO World Heritage List, up from 869 sites in 2019 to 972 in 2026 alongside growing recognition of intangible cultural heritage such as festivals, craftsmanship, and food culture.

For Sri Lanka specifically, a 4.3% score improvement over two years places the country’s tourism development trajectory ahead of the vast majority of the 110 economies assessed, reinforcing a recovery narrative that has also seen the island post record visitor arrivals of 2.36 million in 2025 and tourism earnings of around $ 3.2 billion, following a sustained post-pandemic and post-economic crisis rebound.

The TTDI report cautions, however, that rising visitor numbers alone are not the measure of success going forward. It notes that travel became less affordable in three of every four economies between 2024 and 2026, and that the sector’s key challenge is shifting from generating demand to managing growth responsibly with the destinations best positioned to succeed being those that combine expansion with careful stewardship of infrastructure, communities, and natural assets.