Armenia was placed 79th in a new ranking of the world’s top countries for travel in 2019, improving its standing by five notches against the previous edition of the report.

Compiled by the World Economic Forum, a Swiss-based non-profit organization, the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report is based upon various factors such as access to natural and cultural resources, infrastructure and economic performance.

Armenia performs well in the areas of safety and security, health and hygiene, business environment and price competitiveness, but show poor performance when it comes to varied culture-led activities and natural resources.

Neighboring Georgia is nestled in the 68th spot, while Azerbaijan is placed in the 71st position.

The new report sees Spain claiming the number one spot for the third consecutive year, with France landing in second and Germany in third.

Japan and the United States rounded out the top five. Yemen came bottom, at number 140.

For the fourth year in a row, Bangkok was recently named the No. 1 most popular city on Mastercard's Global Destination Cities Index and was closely followed by Paris and London.

Armenia, meanwhile, has been named the most popular destination among Russians this summer. An average of 8.5% of all airline tickets purchased by Russians in the reporting period are Armenia-bound.