The Travel & Tourism Development Index (TTDI) 2021 is an evolution of the 15-year-old Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) series, a flagship index of the World Economic Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Mobility. This revised index serves as a strategic benchmarking tool for policy-makers, companies and complementary sectors to advance the future development of the Travel and Tourism (T&T) sector by providing unique insights into the strengths and development areas of each country/economy to enhance the realization of sector potential and growth. Furthermore, it serves as a platform for multistakeholder dialogue to understand and anticipate emerging trends and risks in global T&T, direct policies, practices and investment decisions, and accelerate new models that ensure the longevity of this important sector.

The publication’s theme is “Rebuilding for a Sustainable and Resilient Future”. The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the greatest challenges the T&T sector has faced, undermining not only the prosperity of businesses within the sector but also the well-being of tens of millions of employees, local communities and entire economies around the world. At the time of writing, the sector, and the world at large, is starting to assess the impact of the war in Ukraine. Global shocks such as this bring additional instability and economic disruption to the sector and could have long-term impacts on T&T development, as has happened with the pandemic.

As the sector slowly recovers, it will be crucial that lessons are learned from recent and current crises and that steps are taken to embed long-term inclusivity, sustainability and resilience into the T&T sector as it faces evolving challenges and risks. In doing so, the sector can continue to be a driver of global connectivity, peace and economic and social progress. T&T development strategies will play an important role in accomplishing this. Accordingly, important changes have been made between the TTCI and the TTDI.