Tourexpi
Major Shake-Up in World's Passport Power Ranking
Singapore is now officially the most powerful passport in the
world, with its citizens able to visit 192 travel destinations out of 227
around the world visa-free. Germany, Italy, and Spain all
move up into 2nd place with visa-free access to 190 destinations, and
Japanese passport holders join six other nations - Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South
Korea, and Sweden - in 3rd place with access to189 destinations
without a prior visa.
The UK appears to have finally turned the corner after a six-year
decline, jumping up two places on the latest ranking to 4th place - a
position it last held in 2017. The US, on the other hand, continues its now
decade-long slide down the index, plummeting a further two places to 8th spot
with access to just 184 destinations visa-free. Both the UK and the US jointly
held 1st place on the index nearly 10 years ago in 2014 but have been on a
downward trajectory ever since. Afghanistan remains entrenched at the
bottom of the index, with a visa-free score of just 27.
Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman
of Henley & Partners, says the general
trend over the history of the 18-year-old ranking has been towards greater
travel freedom, with the average number of destinations travelers are able to
access visa-free nearly doubling from 58 in 2006 to 109 in 2023. "However,
the global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is now
wider than it has ever been, with top-ranked Singapore able to access
165 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan."
Henley & Partners has conducted exclusive new research into the
relationship between a country's openness to foreigners - how many nations it
allows to cross its borders visa-free - and its own citizens' travel freedom.
The new Henley Openness Index ranks
all 199 countries worldwide according to the number of nationalities they
permit entry to without a prior visa.
The Top 20 'most open' countries are all small island nations or African
states, except for Cambodia. There are 12 countries that are completely
open to all passports and four that don't allow anyone in visa-free. While the
correlation between a high openness score and a high visa-free access score is
not linear or straightforward, it is notable that Singapore and South
Korea - highest climbers in the Top 10 over the past decade - boast
relatively high degrees of openness compared to the 5 countries with the
biggest disparity between the travel freedom they enjoy versus the visa-free
access they provide to other nationalities. US, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand and Japan have all either slid down the ranking or
remained in the same place as their openness stagnates.
Image Credit: © AA
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