Switzerland is followed by Austria, Germany, France and Canada in the top five of the annual 'Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report' for 2009, which features a total of 133 countries.

India has moved up from its 65th position last year, but is still below its neighbour China, which has moved up to 43rd place from 52nd in 2008.

“India is ranked 11th in the (Asia-Pacific) region and 62nd overall, up three places since last year. As with China, India is well assessed for its natural resources (ranked 14th) and cultural resources (24th), with many World Heritage sites, both natural and cultural, rich fauna, and strong creative industries in the country,” WEF said.

The country also has quite a good air transport network, particularly given the country's stage of development, and a reasonable ground transport infrastructure, it added.