This study investigates supply-side investments in the tourism sector, analysing the return and risk
relationship of investments in tourism across several countries. The performance of tourism sector
companies listed on the stock exchange, for the top one dozen countries according to the World
Economic Forum (WEF) tourism rankings, is investigated by region, across these countries and within
each country by comparison to other sectors. Several metrics are used to compare the risk-adjusted
returns, over a 15-year period ending March 2007 and sub-periods to check the persistence of performance
over time. The results present a strikingly different ranking than those of the WEF. The implications
for the flow of investment funds are of importance in a global capital market. Money will flow to
those investments with the highest expected returns for a given risk level and this has consequential
impacts for economic growth and employment in the tourism sector