Thiruvananthapuram: According to an annual study published by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), Brazil and India are the most reasonably priced tourism destinations in the world.

The WTTC competitiveness monitor for 2004, which serves as an indicator of the extent to which a country offers a competitive environment for tourism, has put the two countries ahead of other popular destinations such as Sri Lanka and South Africa. The monitor is based on a range of social and economic parameters that are comparable across the 200 countries surveyed.

According to this survey, India has improved its performance since last year and has moved up from 14th to second place in price competitiveness. Also in the availability and application of technology, environmental sensitivity and openness to international tourism has helped India improve its performance.

However, India's performance has worsened on two parameters — infrastructure and quality of human resources — than its performance in the 2003 survey of the competitiveness monitor. India stands at 93rd place in infrastructure compared to its ranking of 89 in 2003 while in human resources, the country's ranking is 140 compared to 130 last year.