Korea ranks 19th out of 136 countries in a biennial World Economic Forum assessment of how competitive its tourism industry is.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Tuesday said Korea improved 10 notches from 2015 in this year's Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report.
The WEF has been ranking countries in the category since 2007 based on 90 sets of criteria. Korea ranked 42nd in 2007 and has been improving since.
Spain, France and Germany took the top spots.
Among Asian countries Japan was the highest-ranked in fourth place, up five notches from 2015. Hong Kong ranked 11th, Singapore 13th, and China 15th. Taiwan came 32nd, Thailand 35th and India 42nd, largely unchanged from the previous report.