The World Economic Forum has published The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report for 2017, an extremely detailed look at every country’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the tourism sector. Using this data, howmuch.net compiled an infographic of all the countries’ tourism industries… and in extension, the ones which are the most dependent on it.

And where does that leave Malta in the global standings? As high as possible, clinching the number one spot.

As far as tourism industries go, the United States leads the market with an income of $488 billion (double that of China, which came in at second), but its economy relies on less than 5% of that figure. Malta’s income, at $1.4 billion, sits at a highly dependent 15%, colouring in the tiny island and Croatia (with whom we tied) in the darkest shade of red on the infographic.

As the study explained, “most of the countries that are most reliant on their tourism industry for GDP are poor or have a relatively small population and therefore economy.” In fact, with its similarly tiny population, Iceland ranked fifth in the list, with an 8.2% dependency. 

Bringing up the rear, Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Poland, Canada and the Republic of Korea were listed as the top five countries least reliant on tourism, with percentages just over 1%.

What do you make of this infographic? Let us know in the comments below.

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).