(Business in Cameroon) - In its global touristic competitiveness ranking published on 6 April 2017, the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranks Cameroon 25^th in Africa out of 34 countries, while at the global level, the country gets the 126^th position. In the CEMAC zone, Cameroon is outranked by Gabon, ranked 20^th in Africa and 119^th globally.

Chad closes this ranking for Africa, and is 135^th at the world level. Three other countries in this community, being Equatorial Guinea, Congo and the Central African Republic (CAR) are not even present in this ranking. Cameroon's position in this list is even more understandable as the northern regions of the country (North, Far North and Adamawa), where the most visited tourism sites are located, are facing a rise in insecurity in he past 2 years. In addition to repeated attacks by the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram in Cameroon (particularly in the Far North region), which were often coupled with kidnapping of expatriates, hostage situations and cattle thefts generally committed by militias (often from CAR and Chad based on some security sources) and increased in numbers these past months in the Adamawa region.

All things which pushed the European chancelleries installed in Cameroon to advise their nationals to avoid the northern part of the country, considered as a risk zone.

The global ranking on tourism competitiveness is based on 16 criteria including security, health and hygiene, cultural openness, promotion of natural resources, sustainable environment, cultural resources, tourism marketing, price level, qualified human resources, roads and airports and tourism services.

BRM