KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 — Malaysia has placed 26th out of 136 countries measured in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017, the second highest in the region.

The result puts Malaysia above other notable travel destinations in South-east Asia such as Thailand (34th), Indonesia (42nd), and the Philippines (79th).

Spain was the most competitive country in the report, while Singapore (13th) was the best placed country in the region.

"Malaysia continues to deliver a strong performance, ranking 26th. While it dropped 1 position in the rankings, Malaysia effectively improved its travel and tourism competiveness in absolute terms, rising from 4.41 in 2015 to 4.50 in the current edition of the report,” read the section on Malaysia.

The report ranks countries based on 14 "pillars”: business environment, safety and security, health and hygiene, human resources and labour market, ICT readiness, prioritisation of travel and tourism, international openness, price competitiveness, environmental sustainability, air transport infrastructure, ground and port infrastructure, tourist service infrastructure, natural resources, and cultural resources and business travel.

Malaysia performed best in the areas of price competitiveness (3rd best globally), air connectivity (21st) and natural resources (28th)

Its worst scorers were environmental sustainability (123rd), prioritisation of tourism (55th), and business travel, in which it fell seven positions to 34th globally.

The countries were assessed for the report based on their scores from the WEF’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index.