Vietnam is the most attractive country in which to develop hotel projects, according to a benchmarking exercise carried out by fDi. Istanbul comes out as the top city.

When a formula that takes into consideration both cost and quality factors is applied (with cost weighted at 30% and quality 70%), Vietnam sits comfortably atop the rankings, ahead of such FDI giants as the US, India and China as well as the most established tourist magnets of France, the UK and Italy.

Tunisia shows up in a somewhat surprising fifth place, even bearing in mind such rankings do not capture in an immediate sense deteriorations in political stability (and were compiled ahead of the events of January).

Looking strictly at quality, Vietnam plummets to number 20 in favour of more developed markets. Istanbul is clearly a star performer, however, as it holds a dominant position on the cost/quality index, far ahead of the second-placed city, Shanghai, but also ranks first on the quality-only list.

The rankings were compiled using fDi Benchmark, an online subscription database which benchmarks cost and quality competitiveness for investment locations. Its sister product, fDi Markets, recorded 2662 projects in the hotel and tourism industry between 2003 and the end of October 2010.

For a pdf version of the complete rankings click on the link below.