Viet Nam highly rated for competitive prices and safety and security

Viet Nam rises seven places in 2026 Travel and Tourism Development Index

The Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism said the World Economic Forum (WEF) has recently released the 2026 Travel and Tourism Development Index. Viet Nam rose seven places from 2024 to rank 52nd out of 110 economies.

The 2026 Travel and Tourism Development Index, developed by the World Economic Forum, aims to assess the factors and policies that provide a foundation for sustainable and resilient development of the tourism and travel sector.

Rather than directly measuring tourism performance, such as visitor numbers, spending, or revenue, the index focuses on assessing the conditions that enable a destination to attract visitors, serve them, and sustain tourism activities over the long term.

Accordingly, the Travel and Tourism Development Index is structured into five broad groups comprising 17 pillars and 102 indicators. The five groups assessed are the enabling environment; travel and tourism policy and enabling conditions; infrastructure and services; travel and tourism resources; and sustainability of travel and tourism.

To provide a more in-depth assessment of the tourism development capacity of each destination, the pillars are broken down into individual indicators. These indicators are aggregated to produce the scores for the 17 pillars. The overall TTDI score is calculated as the arithmetic mean of the 17 pillars. Meanwhile, the five broad groups above are primarily used to organise, classify, and present the results.

The indicators are standardised on a scale of 1 to 7, allowing for relative comparisons among economies in terms of their level of development and ability to create a favourable environment for tourism.

In 2026, Viet Nam's Travel and Tourism Development Index score reached 4.15, up 6.1% from 2024. This score placed Viet Nam 52nd out of 110 economies, seven places higher than in 2024 and 11 places higher than in 2019.

Within Southeast Asia, Viet Nam ranked fifth, after Singapore (13th), Indonesia (23rd), Malaysia (26th), and Thailand (38th). However, in terms of the rate of improvement, Viet Nam's 6.1% increase in its index score was higher than those of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.

Significant efforts to improve the tourism environment and development conditions

Notably, this year, Viet Nam had seven pillars ranked among the world's top group (from 1st to 35th), a clear improvement from four in 2024. The two highest-ranked pillars were price competitiveness, at seventh, and safety and security, at ninth.

The Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism said the price competitiveness pillar's eight-place rise to seventh and the safety and security pillar's 18-place rise to ninth reflected the World Economic Forum's high assessment of Viet Nam's stable political and social environment, as well as its safety and security, particularly amid global volatility and uncertainty. These are also among Viet Nam's leading competitive advantages in attracting international visitors in recent years.

They were followed by cultural resources at 21st, natural resources at 22nd, travel demand sustainability at 27th, non-leisure resources at 30th, and air transport infrastructure at 34th.

Compared with the previous ranking, air transport infrastructure rose nine places, ground and port infrastructure 10 places, cultural resources six places, and natural resources four places. Environmental sustainability improved significantly, rising 18 places. In particular, travel demand sustainability climbed 24 places to rank 27th.

In addition, six pillars were in the upper-middle group of global rankings (36th–70th): ground and port infrastructure, 43rd; human resources and labour market, 50th; ICT readiness, 58th; business environment, 63rd; travel and tourism openness, 67th; and health and hygiene, 68th.

Thus, 13 of Viet Nam's 17 pillars ranked from the upper-middle group to the world's top group. Meanwhile, four pillars fell into the lower-middle and low-ranking groups (71st–110th): tourism infrastructure and services, environmental sustainability, prioritisation of travel and tourism, and the socioeconomic impact of travel and tourism.

According to the Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism, these results show that Viet Nam's tourism development capacity is making positive progress, with several foundational factors improving significantly, from infrastructure and tourism resources to the environment, safety, and the ability to meet market demand.

The seven-place rise in the ranking and 6.1% increase in the score compared with 2024, together with 13 of the 17 pillars ranking in the upper-middle and top groups globally, reflect the gradual recognition of Viet Nam's efforts to improve the tourism environment and development conditions. This provides an important basis for Viet Nam to further enhance its competitiveness, address remaining shortcomings, and move towards more sustainable, higher-quality, and more effective tourism development in the coming period.