New Zealand ranked world's friendliest nations for tourists

New Zealand, along with Iceland, has been judged the world's friendliest nation for tourists, according to a report released by the World Economic Forum.

This year's "Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report" ranked 140 countries based on attractiveness and competitiveness in the tourism and travel industries.

One of the rankings looked at how welcome tourists were in each country on a scale of one to seven, categorized as "Attitude of population toward foreign visitors."

The analysis showed that New Zealand and Iceland were the friendliest, with a score of 6.8 out of 7 apiece. Morocco was next in line, while Macedonia and Austria ranked at fourth and fifth.

Adversely, Bolivia was found to be the least welcoming to foreigners, followed by Venezuela and then Russia, according to the report.

In the overall Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index - which is "based on the extent to which they are putting in place the factors and policies to make it attractive to develop the travel and tourism sector" - Europe dominated the top five positions with Switzerland, Germany and Austria in the respective top three.

Switzerland has held the top spot since the index began five years ago.