POWER OF THE PASSPORT
THE ANNUAL GLOBAL MOBILITY REPORT COMPILED BY THE HENLEY PASSPORT INDEX FINDS THE WORLD ’ S MOST POWERFUL PASSPORTS HAVE THE LEAST TRAVEL FREEDOM
Passport holders with the greatest global access are currently the most restricted and reluctant to enjoy their travel freedom , according to the latest results from the Henley Passport Index , which is based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association ( IATA ). Japan holds the number one spot on the index — the original ranking of all the world ’ s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa — with a recordhigh visa-free or visa-on-arrival score of 193 , while Singapore and South Korea come in joint-2nd place , with a score of 192 .
But despite the unmatched and unprecedented worldwide access afforded to the citizens of these three nations over the index ’ s 17-year history , international passenger demand in the Asia-Pacific region has only reached 17 % of pre-Covid levels , according to IATA ’ s latest statistics , having hovered below 10 % for most of the past two years . This figure is far behind the global trend where markets in Europe and North America have recovered to around 60 % of pre-crisis travel mobility levels . Commenting in the Henley Global Mobility Report 2022 Q3 , Dr Marie Owens Thomsen , Chief Economist at IATA , says passenger numbers should reach 83 % of pre-pandemic levels in 2022 .
“ By next year , many markets should see traffic reach or exceed pre-pandemic levels , while we expect this to be the case for the industry as a whole in 2024 ,” Dr Owens Thomsen explained .
EU member states dominate the rest of the top ten spots on the latest ranking , with Germany and Spain in joint-3rd place , with access to 190 destinations visafree . Finland , Italy , and Luxembourg follow closely behind in joint-4th place with 189 destinations , and Denmark , Netherlands , and Sweden share 5th place with their passport holders able to travel to 188 destinations worldwide without a visa . Both the UK and US have dropped down a rank , to 6th and 7th place , respectively , and Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the index , with its nationals only able to access 27 destinations worldwide visa-free .
As US travel chaos begins to ease following the Fourth of July holiday weekend , strikes and staff shortages are forcing airlines across Europe to cancel thousands of flights , causing hours-long queues at major airports , similar scenes have been witnessed in Australia , often stranding passengers in foreign countries . Heathrow Airport has even told airlines to stop selling summer tickets as the UK ’ s biggest airport struggles to cope with the rebound in air travel . Dr Christian H . Kaelin , Chairman of Henley & Partners and the inventor of the passport index concept , says the recent surge in demand is hardly surprising .
“ The latest results from the Henley Passport Index are a heartening reminder of the very human desire for global connectivity even as some countries move toward isolationism and autarky ," added Dr Kaelin . " The shock of the pandemic was unlike anything seen in our lifetimes , and the recovery and reclamation of our travel freedoms , and our innate instinct to move and migrate will take time .”
Exclusive research conducted by Henley & Partners reveals that top-ranking passports have bounced back almost to pre-pandemic levels in terms of access . By comparing the current level of travel freedom with the most severe Covid-related restrictions imposed over the past few years , the results show that UK and US passport holders now have unrestricted access to 158 destinations around the world ( as opposed to just 74 and 56 destinations , respectively , at the height of the pandemic in 2020 ), while Japanese passport holders enjoy unrestricted access to 161 destinations ( as opposed to only 76 in 2020 ).
After months of what was described as “ travel apartheid ”, where travel from developing nations in the Global South was effectively blocked while citizens of wealthier countries in the Global North were making marked gains in travel freedom , lower-ranking passports are also beginning to recover . Indian passport holders now have roughly the same travel freedom as they did pre-pandemic , with unrestricted access to 57 destinations around the world ( as opposed just 23 destinations in 2020 ). Similarly , while restricted to just 46 destinations at the height of the Omicron wave in 2021 , South African
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