1. Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Business Strategy
Bloom Consulting
Country
Brand
Ranking ©
Tourism
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting © Since 2003

2. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking ©
An Introduction
The Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking © is the only country or nation brand ranking
which classifies countries by the effectiveness of their country brand strategies
and its subsequent impact on the country’s GDP.
In order to do so, Bloom Consulting has taken into account variables that define the economic
performance of the countries as well as variables that characterize the strategies’ accuracy and
market acceptance.
Bloom Consulting has used hard facts, such as economic indicators and an analysis of the offi-
cial country brand strategies as well as soft data indicators, thereby measuring the economic
impact of each country’s tourism brand strategy. Furthermore, this marks the first time that
Online Search Demand (OSD) has been incorporated into a ranking of this type.
The 2012 Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking © Tourism accounts for the most compre-
hensive, objective research done in the field so far. In accordance with the Bloom Consulting 3T
Approach © (see page 3), Bloom Consulting creates separate Rankings for Trade and Tourism.
It includes 161 countries and all economic data comes from recognized sources such as the
World Bank, United Nations, and the World Tourism Organization.
Bloom Consulting © Since 2003 countrybranding@bloom-consulting.com / +34 91 308 0286 (CET) Page 01

3. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
An introductory note from the CEO
Welcome
For the second consecutive year, I am proud to present to you with the Bloom Consulting
Country Brand Ranking!
Over the last nine years, I have had the privilege of working with Bloom Consulting in country
branding strategies all over the world. From my experience, the most striking fact I found so
far is that most countries, regardless of their economic development, geographic location or even
size, have very similar issues when developing their own country brand strategy. These issues
are very much related with internal concerns, such as accountability or stakeholder management,
and also the tangible measurement of brand strategy investments.
Our objective when launching this ranking was precisely to tackle this issue: how much more
revenue can a country brand attract to its own national economy?
Let me just say how excited I am with the new feature in our algorithm - Online Search
Demand (OSD). For the first time in any country or nation brand ranking, we analyze how
well positioned countries are in the biggest search engines and how searched they are
by tourists in general.
To conclude, I encourage you to use this ranking internally and use it as an asset and a tool
to demonstrate the importance your country brand has on your economy. Although we would
have liked to go deeper and give a detailed description on each country’s performance, it’s
impossible to do so in this overview. However if you are interested to find out more information
on your country, please do not hesitate to contact us. I would be happy to send you all the infor-
mation you require.
Welcome to the Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking © 2012. We hope you appreciate the
great results and findings as much as we did!
José Filipe Torres - CEO Bloom Consulting
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4. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Introduction to Country Branding
The 3T approach ©
In creating a country brand strategy we focus on three main areas:
attraction of trade, tourism and talent.
The traditional approach when facing the challenge of attracting trade, tourism and talent
is to create, or simply improve, perceptions under one umbrella strategy. Ultimately this
will fail, as we see over and over again around the world. It is impossible to communicate
entertainment to investors and simultaneously communicate a qualified and hardworking
workforce to potential tourists. They messages repel each other, destroying the core
objective. Most of the time agencies attempt a compromise in order to better create
an overall strategy. As a result, they weaken their brand, as each factor is not branded
up to its potential.
In order to solve the problem of having a single multi-dimensional strategy,
Bloom Consulting has developed a 3T approach to country branding
that separates each T.
T1. Attraction of Trade
T2. Attraction of Tourism
T3. Attraction of Talent
Traditional “Umbrella” Strategy Bloom Consulting’s 3T Approach ©
T1 T2 T3 T2
GDP GDP
T1 T3
Impact Impact
This way, we’re able to calculate growth projections and calculations individually,
in order to better define the objectives of an overall strategy.
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5. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Understanding the Methodology
The Ranking Variables
The Bloom Consulting Algorithm, was developed to create and calculate the ranking, taking into
account both hard and soft data and includes groundbreaking processes to show the relationship
between a country’s economic performance and the projections of the country’s brand strategy.
The ranking is derived from four variables that take into account both hard and soft data. The
ranking does not use any survey or interview based data, meaning that it provides the most
objective, accurate results possible.
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking Algorithm variables
Historical Bloom Consulting
CBS Economic
Rating© Growth
Economic Country Brand
Performance Ranking ©
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6. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Understanding the Methodology
The Ranking Variables in more detail
Historical Economic Performance
Strategies and economic returns do not have an immediate cause and effect relationship, there-
fore Bloom Consulting looks at the country’s long term (five years)* historical economic
performance in international tourism receipts. This way, the Ranking reflects more consistent
trends rather than the volatile changes that might occur in the recovering economic climate.
Economic Growth
The growth in international tourism receipts of each country is also an important indicator when
measuring the country’s economic performance, therefore Bloom Consulting computes the
compound annual growth rate for the economic tourism performance. This way, it is possible to
garner how much the industry grew or decreased and the impact it had on the revenue. Again,
data spanning five years was used to reflect consistent trends rather than brief volatile changes.
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Strategy (CBS) Rating ©
Bloom Consulting also rates the impact of each country’s branding strategy. The CBS Rating ©
takes into account the uniqueness of each country’s current brand strategy (Brand Tags) and the
accuracy of the Online Search Demand. A brand strategy that is more unique and more aligned
with tourist searches will receive a better Rating.
* UNWTO covering the years 2006-2010.
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7. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Measuring Country Brand Strategy Accuracy
The CBS Rating ©
CBS Rating © is calculated using brand strategy economic performance analysis and analysis of
Online Search Demand. The country brand strategy is measured through brand tags, the key
words that reflect the brand strategy of each country. For the first time in any country or nation
brand ranking, Bloom’s Online Search Demand (OSD) is able to show if a country supplies what
tourists are seeking, and how well the country is matching this demand.
Brand tags function as the ‘supply’ side of the tourist-destination equation. Thousands of brand
tags were collected from each country’s official tourism agency and then classified into 38
different clusters that relate to adventure sports and activities, natural features, beaches, local
culture and traditions, or gastronomy. Each cluster is assigned an economic value in order to rate
the relative returns gained from each brand tag.
Domestic and international tourist searches for the brand tags and related words were then
analyzed, country by country, in the most used search engines, to show the country’s accuracy
match and quantify Online Search Demand. By considering the OSD, Bloom Consulting is able
to show if a country offers what tourists are seeking, and how well the country is matching this
demand. This identifies the gap between supply and demand. The more accurate a country is, the
better the CBS Rating ©.
Just as international rating agencies rank countries’ credit risk, Bloom Consulting
uses the CBS Rating © Classification System
Score Description
AAA Very Strong
AA Strong
A Slightly Strong
BBB Very Good
BB Good
B Slightly Good
CCC Slightly Weak
CC Weak
C Very Weak
D Poor
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8. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking ©
2012 TOURISM EDITION - WORLD Ranking
Rank CBS Rating ©
1. United States of America AA
2. Spain AAA
3. France AA
4. China A
5. Turkey AAA
6. Thailand AAA
7. Germany BBB
8. Macao AAA
9. United Kingdom BBB
10. Australia BBB
Due to the historical brand equity and the fact that both have strong country brand strategies China, Hong Kong and Macao have been considered as separate countries in this ranking.
Bloom Consulting © Since 2003 countrybranding@bloom-consulting.com / +34 91 308 0286 (CET) Page 07

9. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Rank CBS Rating ©
11. Austria AA
12. Italy BB
13. Hong Kong A
14. Malaysia A
15. Netherlands BBB
16. Mexico AAA
17. Switzerland A
18. Canada BBB
19. Croatia AAA
20. Russian Federation A
21. Portugal A
22. Singapore A
23. India A
24. Greece BBB
25. Republic of Korea BBB
26. Belgium A
27. Morocco AAA
28. Japan BB
29. United Arab Emirates AAA
30. Sweden BB
31. Egypt BB
32. Ireland A
33. South Africa BBB
34. Poland BB
35. Hungary AAA
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10. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Rank CBS Rating ©
36. Czech Republic A
37. Indonesia B
38. Saudi Arabia CCC
39. Finland AAA
40. Argentina AA
41. Lebanon CCC
42. Denmark A
43. Norway AA
44. New Zealand A
45. Philippines AAA
46. Slovenia AAA
47. Brazil B
48. Slovakia AAA
49. Dominican Republic BBB
50. Ukraine B
51. Israel CCC
52. Peru A
53. Bulgaria BB
54. Chile A
55. Malta AAA
56. Estonia AAA
57. Cyprus A
58. Luxembourg CCC
59. Romania A
60. Jordan CCC
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11. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Rank CBS Rating ©
61. Kenya AAA
62. Lithuania AAA
63. Guatemala A
64. United Republic of Tanzania A
65. Ethiopia A
66. Viet Nam CC
67. Uruguay BBB
68. Mauritius A
69. Colombia B
70. Albania BB
71. Iran B
72. Costa Rica BB
73. Tunisia CCC
74. Panama CCC
75. Cambodia BBB
76. Sri Lanka AAA
77. Serbia A
78. Bahrain B
79. Bahamas B
80. Barbados BB
81. Maldives AAA
82. Cuba CC
83. Ecuador AA
84. Jamaica CCC
85. Kazakhstan CCC
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12. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Rank CBS Rating ©
86. Iceland AAA
87. Latvia BB
88. Oman C
89. Pakistan CC
90. Venezuela BB
91. Bosnia and Herzegovina BB
92. Uganda A
93. Georgia A
94. Nepal AAA
95. Ghana CCC
96. El Salvador B
97. Fiji BB
98. Botswana AAA
99. Belarus BBB
100. Namibia AA
101. Armenia AAA
102. Montenegro CCC
103. Nigeria CCC
104. Honduras BB
105. Trinidad and Tobago B
106. Zimbabwe B
107. Kuwait CCC
108. Mongolia AA
109. Seychelles A
110. Saint Lucia A
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13. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Rank CBS Rating ©
111. Kyrgyzstan CCC
112. Azerbaijan CC
113. Senegal C
114. Belize BBB
115. Macedonia BBB
116. Yemen C
117. Angola C
118. Rwanda BB
119. Antigua and Barbuda B
120. Madagascar CCC
121. Algeria CCC
122. Republic of Moldova B
123. Lao’s People Democratic Republic CC
124. Brunei Darussalam B
125. Saint Kits and Nevis AA
126. Zambia BBB
127. Mozambique B
128. Bolivia CCC
129. Nicaragua CC
130. Grenada BBB
131. Cape Verde C
132. Sudan B
133. Samoa B
134. Guyana BBB
135. Cameroon CC
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14. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Rank CBS Rating ©
136. Paraguay D
137. Solomon Islands BBB
138. Dominica BB
139. Myanmar B
140. Togo CCC
141. Suriname B
142. Burkina Faso CCC
143. Lesotho BBB
144. Bhutan B
145. Gambia B
146. Côte d’Ivoire D
147. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines CC
148. Bangladesh C
149. Timor-Leste B
150. Sierra Leone B
151. Comoros CCC
152. Tajikistan CCC
153. Swaziland CC
154. Federated States of Micronesia D
155. São Tomé and Principe A
156. Djibouti CCC
157. Tonga D
158. Kiribati BBB
159. Papua New Guinea B
160. Burundi CC
161. Marshall Islands D
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15. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking ©
Comments
The United States continued its number one reign in the 2012 Bloom Consulting Country Brand
Ranking © Tourism. The AA Rating indicates that the US’ tourism brand is very accurate when
considering tourism demand, and has a strong positive impact on its tourism industry. Although
the US saw a decline in tourism receipts from the previous year, the strong overall performance
and excellent CBS Rating © ensured their continued supremacy.
The remaining top countries include other strong economic
performers such as several powerhouse European countries,
the upcoming BRIC countries and Asian economic hubs.
Asia in particular performed extremely well in the 2012
Ranking. Eight Asian countries finished in the top 25,
with China as number four. Aided by both strong tourism
receipts and CBS Ratings ©, Thailand (6) and Malaysia
(14) significantly improved from last year. For the first
time, Macao was evaluated as an individual country and
finished with a bang at number eight. A notable absence
was Japan. With a BB rating that could not counteract
the residual effects of the tsunami, Japan suffered
a three spot drop to number twenty-eight.
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16. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking ©
Comments, Continued
Though European countries, especially Germany, the UK and Italy, have slipped in the Ranking
since last year, twelve European countries remained in the top 25. The continued prominence
despite decreased tourism receipts indicates that strong CBS © Ratings can help weather the
lingering economic stress in Europe.
Interestingly, Africa had some surprising developments,
especially in light of the recent political developments.
Although none finished in the top 25, the top 50 was filled
with noticeable improvements from last year. Morocco (27)
and United Arab Emirates (29) led the way with a respec-
tive 3 and amazing 16 jump up in the ranking powered by
AAA ratings.
Decreased tourism opportunities were visible in several performances. Egypt (31) noticeably
suffered from the downturn in the industry, while Saudi Arabia also dropped. Notably, the study
established several African countries making slow but steady improvements, with Kenya, Tanza-
nia and Ethiopia as countries to watch. This indicates both shifting tourist interests and the
general economic potential for the continent.
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17. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Classification, References and Sources
Additional information about the study
Bloom Consulting divided the world into eleven geographic sectors and the four economic
development stages in order to maintain the singularity of the region and compare countries
in a regional context.
Bloom Consulting Geographic Regions
1. Central and Southern Asia
2. Europe
3. Northern Africa
4. Oceania
5. Central and Middle Africa
6. Central America and Caribbean
7. South America
8. Middle East
9. Western and Southern Africa
10. Northern America
11. Eastern and South-Eastern Asia
The four World Bank Income levels
12. Low Income
13. Lower Middle Income
14. Upper Middle Income
15. High Income (Includes both OECD and non-OECD)
Further sources for countries income level classifications and geographic regions:
The World Bank http://www.worldbank.org/
The World Tourism Organization http://www2.unwto.org/en
The United Nations http://www.un.org/en/
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18. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking©
FAQs
1) Who is this Ranking meant for?
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking © is for anyone interested in place branding
from every perspective, whether you’re in government, academia, industry, finance,
or just find it interesting.
2) Why did Bloom Consulting create a Ranking?
Bloom Consulting created the Ranking to evaluate the impact of a country’s brand strategy in
economic terms and, above all, to answer the ever relevant question of how countries can
become more attractive.
3) How does Bloom Consulting’s Ranking differ from other rankings?
Bloom Consulting’s Ranking uses variables and methodology to generate a ranking far ahead
of the field in terms of objectivity and innovation. Not only does Bloom Consulting base its
research on objective hard and soft facts, rather than using survey based data like other rankings,
it is also the first ranking to take tourist demand into account.
4) What is new in the 2012 edition of the Ranking?
The 2012 edition of the Ranking features the inclusion of Tourist Online Search Demand (OSD)
in the Bloom Algorithm. By analysing consumer behaviour and the effectiveness of country
brand strategies, the newest Ranking raises the bar by giving a pioneering view of the global
tourism industry from a supply and demand angle.
5) How can a state have a poor CBS Rating ©, but do well in the Ranking?
If a country has a negative CBS Rating ©, its brand strategy is not actively reflecting what the
country has to offer (in the eyes of tourist-demand). Even though its economic performance
might still be strong, the tourism strategy is not taking advantage of the country’s unique selling
propositions.
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19. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Tourism
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting
About
Bloom Consulting is a strategy consulting firm specialized in country branding.
José Filipe Torres founded Bloom Consulting in 2003 and is a regular spokesperson at confer-
ences and universities worldwide. Both The Economist and Forbes have interviewed Mr Torres,
where he was identified as one of the top 3 country branding experts in the world.
Currently Bloom Consulting has offices in São Paulo, Mumbai, Lisbon, Madrid (headquarters)
and Los Angeles, as well as research centres in Tokyo and London. Bloom Consulting works
closely with presidents, monarchs, ministers and institutions in order to define their strategy,
establish their vision, and implement it. Bloom’s clients include the Bulgarian, Latvian, Polish,
Portuguese and Spanish governments, and also regions such as Madrid, Castilla y Leon in Spain,
and center and the southwest regions of Portugal.
Bloom Consulting has developed the 3T approach © that separates Trade, Tourism, and Talent
strategies into three different Country Branding Strategies.
One fundamental point of all of Bloom Consulting’s projects is the CAMPRO methodology ©.
This methodology is a combination of academic and professional knowledge under Bloom
Consulting’s management and control, key to obtaining the most accurate recommendations
and insights for all clients.
Moreover Bloom Consulting has published the:
Bloom Consulting US State Brand Ranking © 2012
and is currently developing the:
Bloom Consulting India State Brand Ranking © 2013
Additional Information
While this report provides a general overview, the information presented here is but
a glimpse of the findings we have at your disposal. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you
would like a personalized and detailed version of the Bloom Consulting Country Branding
Ranking © Report for your country, region or city.
For more information, please visit:
www.bloom-consulting.com/en/country-brands-ranking
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