Travel and Tourism Development Index 2026: Italy Slips to 10th Even as Its Score Rises

The 2026 ranking keeps the same top ten in a new order

Japan leads the 2026 index with a score of 5.27, up two places. The United States is second with 5.23 and Spain third with 5.22, down two places. Australia moved up two places to fourth with 5.18, one hundredth of a point ahead of France in fifth. Germany, the United Kingdom, China, Switzerland and Italy complete the top ten. The WEF notes that the same ten economies held the top ten in 2024, in a different order, and that European economies hold six of the ten places.

Italy's 4.93 puts it 0.04 points behind Switzerland and 0.02 points ahead of Portugal. Korea is 12th with 4.90 and Singapore 13th with 4.89. Canada, 14th with 4.85, fell three places, the largest drop in the top 14. From 9th place to 14th the scores span 0.12 points (our calculation from the WEF table).

Over the longer run Italy has gained. The WEF's recalculated 2019 results put Italy 13th with 4.76. Against that base Italy is up three places and its score up 3.6%, the same gain in score as Greece and a larger one than the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany or Switzerland recorded over the same seven years.

Greece is 21st with 4.57, unchanged in rank since 2024, after a 2.5% rise in score. It is level on score with Ireland in 20th. Greece's rank held because the economies around it moved at a similar pace.

The press release that accompanied the index describes the global pattern in two sentences that matter for Italy. It says advanced economies hold nine of the top ten places. It also says travel became less affordable in three out of four economies between 2024 and 2026. Italy shares that second trend with most of the field, and in Italy's case the price score fell 13.7% (our calculation) and its rank from 97th to 102nd.

A higher score and a lower rank

The overall score is a plain average. The WEF calculates it as the arithmetic mean of 17 pillar scores, and each pillar is an unweighted average of its indicators. The five dimensions that group the pillars are used for presentation only. We checked Italy's figures against that rule. Its 17 pillar scores in the 2026 profile add up to 83.77, which divided by 17 gives 4.93. The 2024 pillar scores add up to 82.71, or 4.865, which matches the displayed 4.86 within rounding (both our calculation).

On those pillar scores, nine of Italy's 17 pillars rose between 2024 and 2026, six fell and two were unchanged (our count). The nine that rose added more than the six that fell took away. Together the pillar changes are worth about 0.06 points on the overall score (our calculation), which accounts for Italy's improvement within rounding.

On the rounded scores, 4.86 to 4.93 is a rise of 1.4% (our calculation). The WEF reports 1.3%, presumably computed on unrounded values; we did not see the unrounded figures. Either way the rise is below the 2.1% average across the index. Had Italy's score grown at the average rate, it would have reached about 4.97, level with Switzerland (our calculation from the WEF's 2026 score and percentage change). That counterfactual is arithmetic only. It measures the size of the gap and nothing more.

The field also changed. The 2024 edition covered 119 economies and the 2026 edition covers 110. Nine economies were dropped and none were added: Barbados, Cambodia, Iran, Lebanon, Moldova, Montenegro, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. The WEF recalculated the 2019, 2021 and 2024 results on the 110-economy basis and says this edition is incompatible with the version released before it. Italy was 9th of 119 in the 2024 edition as published in May 2024 and is 9th of 110 in the recalculated 2024 results, so the coverage change does not alter the one-place move.

Whether a one-place move means anything is a separate question. The gap to Portugal is 0.02 points and the gap to Switzerland 0.04. The technical notes we read give no confidence intervals or margins of error, and we found none elsewhere in the WEF material. The survey-based indicators use a weighted average of 2024 and 2025 responses. With no published uncertainty, we cannot say whether Italy's position relative to Portugal or Switzerland differs in any measurable way. The rank order is what the WEF publishes, and that is how this article reports it.

Where Italy lost ground on price, policy and labor

Italy's largest rank losses sit in the dimension the WEF calls T&T Policy and Enabling Conditions. Italy fell from 61st to 75th of 110 on that dimension between 2024 and 2026. Two of its three pillars account for most of the fall.

Prioritization of Travel and Tourism fell from 24th to 35th, with the score down from 5.17 to 4.90, a drop of 5.2% (our calculation). We did not open the indicator-level data, so we cannot say which indicators moved. The 2026 rank is still better than Italy's 44th in 2019.

Price Competitiveness is Italy's weakest pillar. Italy ranks 102nd of 110, down from 97th in 2024 and 95th in 2019. Its score fell from 3.06 to 2.64, a drop of 13.7% (our calculation), the largest score fall of any of Italy's 17 pillars. Taken alone, that one pillar took about 0.025 points off Italy's overall score (our calculation, the 0.42-point fall divided by 17). The WEF says the top 20 economies as a group perform significantly worse than the rest of the world on price competitiveness, and its press release says travel became less affordable in three out of four economies. Italy's weakness here is shared by most rich destinations. Its rank on it is lower than that of any of the four peers in this article.

Openness to Travel and Tourism shows how ranks can fall while scores rise. Italy's score on that pillar edged up from 4.79 to 4.81 and its rank fell from 18th to 25th. Natural Resources followed the same pattern, a slightly higher score of 4.62 and a rank down from 13th to 17th.

The Enabling Environment dimension, which covers the business climate, safety, health, workforce and digital readiness, fell from 30th to 35th. Within it, Human Resources and Labour Market fell from 32nd to 40th, with the score down from 4.67 to 4.53. Business Environment fell from 35th to 39th and Health and Hygiene from 15th to 18th. Safety and Security rose from 45th to 43rd and ICT Readiness held 38th with a higher score.

Cultural Resources is the pillar on which Italy scores highest, 6.40, and the score did not change between 2024 and 2026. Italy's rank slipped from 3rd to 4th. Across the index, the WEF reports that Cultural Resources recorded the largest improvement of any pillar, 9.6%. Italy stood still on a pillar where the average moved most, and at least one economy overtook it. We did not identify which one; Spain is 6th and France 5th on the pillar, so it was neither.

Where Italy gained on services, air links and business travel

The gains were large enough to lift the overall score. Tourist Services and Infrastructure rose from 4.50 to 5.12, up 13.8%, and Italy's rank on it improved from 16th to 14th. Non-Leisure Resources, the pillar the WEF uses for reasons to travel other than leisure, rose from 4.20 to 4.79, up 14.0%, and its rank from 18th to 13th (percentages our calculation). Air Transport Infrastructure rose from 5.25 to 5.66, up 7.8%, while Italy's rank stayed at 17th. For the airline side of that picture, see our ITA Airways and Lufthansa analysis.

The Tourist Services gain alone added about 0.04 points to Italy's overall score (our calculation, 0.62 divided by 17), more than the price fall took away. The Infrastructure and Services dimension rose from 4.82 to 5.14, but Italy's rank on it moved from 12th to 13th. The T&T Resources dimension rose from 5.07 to 5.27 and its rank from 10th to 11th. Both are further examples of a higher score earning a lower rank in a field that improved almost everywhere.

The T&T Sustainability dimension is where Italy's rank improved most, from 63rd to 49th. T&T Socioeconomic Impact rose from 90th to 83rd, on a score that edged up from 3.68 to 3.72. T&T Demand Sustainability rose in score from 3.58 to 3.75 while its rank slipped from 67th to 69th. The WEF says many European economies score lower on socioeconomic impact than the rest of the index, and Italy is one of them. City measures aimed at crowding, such as the Venice access fee, sit below the national level the index scores, so their effects cannot be read from these pillars.

The WEF's regional chapter puts Italy in context. It names Western Europe, Eastern Asia-Pacific and Southern Europe as the highest-performing subregions, says Western and Southern Europe stand out on tourist services and infrastructure, and says price competitiveness remains a relative weakness across the three. Italy fits that profile closely. It is strong where the region is strong, and its price rank, 102nd, is below Spain's 88th, Portugal's 94th and Greece's 100th.

Italy against Spain, France, Portugal and Greece

The four Mediterranean and Western European peers show that Italy's weak pillars are common to the region and that its rivals offset them in different ways.

Spain, third with 5.22, is the strongest of the five on infrastructure. It ranks 2nd on the Infrastructure and Services dimension, 3rd on Air Transport and 3rd on Tourist Services, and 33rd on the policy dimension where Italy is 75th. Spain's 88th place on price competitiveness is the best of the five and still in the bottom quarter of the index. The WEF's recalculated 2024 results put Spain first with 5.17, and its 1.0% rise to 2026 was the slowest in the top ten, which is why it fell two places.

France, fifth with 5.17, ranks 5th on cultural resources and 4th on environmental sustainability. It ranks 99th on price competitiveness and 97th on socioeconomic impact, below Italy on the second. France shows that a weak price rank and a low socioeconomic rank are compatible with a top-five place.

Portugal, 11th with 4.91, is the economy closest behind Italy. Its profile differs most from Italy's on the sustainability pillars. Portugal ranks 34th on socioeconomic impact against Italy's 83rd and 21st on the sustainability dimension against Italy's 49th. It ranks 12th on safety and security against Italy's 43rd. Italy leads Portugal clearly on cultural resources, 4th against 14th.

Greece, 21st with 4.57, ranks 4th on tourist services, 8th on air transport and 15th on the priority given to tourism, all ahead of Italy. It ranks 25th on cultural resources, 58th on ground and port infrastructure and 96th on demand sustainability.

Four measures set Italy apart within the group. It has the best rank of the five on cultural resources, 4th, and on demand sustainability, 69th. It has the worst rank of the five on price competitiveness, 102nd, and on the policy dimension, 75th. The peer figures were read from the WEF's interactive economy profiles, and the lower rows of the France, Greece and Portugal profiles were read with less confidence than the rest.

What the index measures, and what it cannot tell you

The WEF describes the index as a measure of the factors and policies that enable the sustainable and resilient development of travel and tourism. Its 102 indicators combine responses to the WEF's Executive Opinion Survey with hard data from sources that include the World Bank, UN Tourism, the World Travel and Tourism Council, IATA and UNESCO, normalized to the 1-to-7 scale. Every pillar carries the same weight in the overall score, so price competitiveness counts as much as cultural resources.

The index does not rank tourism performance. A country can draw more visitors than its neighbor and rank below it, and the Italian case shows how far the two can diverge. Italy recorded 535.5 million nights in tourist accommodation in 2025, the most in the EU, on a count that for the first time includes non-business private rentals (Eurostat, ISTAT). Without those rentals ISTAT's total is 481 million, below Spain's 512.9 million. Spain leads on nights by foreign visitors, 328.9 million to 301.6 million, and on international travel receipts, €105.2 billion (Banco de España) to €56.7 billion (Bank of Italy). The Bank of Italy counted 61.4 million foreign overnight travelers in Italy in 2025.

Spain is also ahead of Italy on the index, so on that pair the two measures point the same way. The agreement does not hold across the group. Italy is first in the EU on total nights and 10th on the index. France reports 102 million international arrivals for 2025, in an Atout France release that does not name its source, and ranks 5th. For how Italy's 2026 demand is tracking on the monthly data, see our 2026 record watch, which shows nights up 2.87% from January to August on a like-for-like basis.

The WEF's economy profile for Italy carries context figures that look like performance data. The 2026 profile shows 61,336 thousand international tourist arrivals, inbound receipts of US$64,097.8 million, a travel and tourism industry GDP of US$115,967 million or 4.8% of GDP, 1,589 thousand jobs or 6.6% of employment, and a 67.1% domestic share of tourism spending. The profile does not show the year each figure refers to. The arrivals figure is close to the Bank of Italy's 61.4 million for 2025 without matching it. The receipts figure is a dollar series from a different source and cannot be set against the Bank of Italy's €56.7 billion. We did not establish whether either figure is used inside a pillar.

Claims checked

Most of the coverage we read reported the ranking correctly. The claims below are the ones we could tie to a named outlet and date.

What we could not find

Several things this article would ideally report are not in the material we could open. We did not open indicator-level data for Italy, so we cannot say which of the 102 indicators drove the falls in prioritization of tourism, price competitiveness or the labor market. The WEF publishes no confidence intervals that we found, so the significance of a 0.02-point gap is unknown.

We found no reaction to the 2026 index from Italy's Tourism Ministry, ENIT or the main hotel associations. Italian coverage we read, in Qualitytravel and SiViaggia, quoted only the WEF and Zurich Insurance Group, the index's partner. The WEF lists the nine economies dropped from the index but, in the sections we read, gives no reason for each exclusion. The technical notes say one indicator had a methodology change introduced by the WEF and refer to Table A3, which is an image we could not read. The economy profile does not state the year behind its arrivals, receipts, GDP and employment figures.

What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts

Travelers should read Italy's 102nd place on price competitiveness as a relative measure. It compares Italy with 109 other economies, many of them far cheaper, and the four European peers in this article rank between 88th and 100th on the same pillar. The index gives no figure for what a trip costs. The pillars where Italy scores best, cultural resources at 4th and tourist services at 14th, describe what most visitors come for. Demand pressure is seasonal, as our monthly tracking shows, and a trip outside August meets less of it. For a first visit, start with our Rome travel guide, and for more space away from the art cities, our Sicily travel guide.

Tourism businesses and investors should treat the one-place fall as a signal about pace. Italy's score rose 1.3% against a 2.1% average, and its rank fell on the pillars for policy priority and price. The pillars that improved, tourist services and air transport, are the supply side that businesses build. An underwriter reading the index should not mistake the rank for demand; Italy's nights and foreign spending sit on separate official series. The pillars to watch in the next edition are prioritization of tourism, which was 24th in 2024, and price competitiveness, where Italy has slipped from 95th in 2019 to 102nd.

Journalists and analysts can cite these figures with their basis. Italy is 10th of 110 in the TTDI 2026 with 4.93, up 1.3% from 4.86 on the WEF's recalculated 2024 basis, when it was 9th. Of 110 economies, 101 improved and the average rose 2.1%. Italy ranks 4th on cultural resources, 102nd on price competitiveness, 83rd on socioeconomic impact and 75th on the policy dimension. Portugal is 11th, 0.02 points behind. Claims not to repeat include that Italy's score fell, that France is fourth, a 2024 "top spot" for any country without naming the basis, the original 2024 pillar scores set against 2026 ones, and any reading of the index as a ranking of visitor numbers or revenue. The finding this article adds to our series is that Italy's place on the index and its place on demand figures do not line up, first in the EU on total nights and 10th on the index, and that price competitiveness is the pillar on which all five European destinations in this comparison rank 88th or lower.