Skift Take
The World’s Passport Index for visa-free travel, ranked according to International Air Transport Association, reveals the U.S. has actually slipped two spots and is not likely to restore its position soon.
Selene Brophy
Singapore has unseated Japan as the nation with the most effective passport, based on the latest International Air Transportation Association data that reveals the most ease of access to other nations for travelers.
The U.S. passport ranked 8th, a decline of 2 locations from last quarter.
The Henley Passport Index, launched by the international migration consultancy company, measures visa-free access to 227 destinations. It ranks the world’s passports according to the variety of destinations their holders can access without having to apply for a visa.
The Top 10
1. Singapore: 192 locations
2. Germany, Italy, Spain: 190 destinations.
3. Austria, Finland, France, Japan, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Sweden: 189 locations.
4. Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, and UK: 188 destinations.
5. Belgium, Czech Republic, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, and Switzerland: 187 destinations.
6. Australia, Australia, Hungary, and Poland: 186 locations.
7. Canada, Greece: 185 destinations.
8. United States, Lithuania: 184 locations.
9. Latvia, Slovakia and Slovenia: 183 destinations.
10. Estonia, Iceland: 182 locations.
The U.S.’s decade-long decline in passport power has actually seen it protected visa-free access to just 12 extra destinations between 2013 and 2023. Singapore’s rating increased by 25, elevating it to the top over the previous years.
Annie Pforzheimer, a former U.S. Department of State career diplomat, recommended in the quarterly upgrade that the U.S.’s fixed state of affairs is likely to remain due to “the lack of a need from inside the U.S. for a modification in policy, the severe political danger for any group or politician who unintentionally helps with travel by a terrorist, and the truth that tourist has actually risen post-pandemic anyway, even with a restrictive visa waiver program.”
“Unfortunately, that status quo, in time, might well add to a decrease in US soft power if businesses struggle to invite partners to trade convention and meetings, tourists come across needless application hold-ups and look somewhere else, and open xenophobia erodes the general public track record of the United States as a world leader,” stated Pforzheimer.
Freedom of Motion
Skift has actually written about the geopolitical impact of travel, connecting quality of life to how freely people can move across borders. We highlighted stretched visa processing and long delays as a 2023 MegaTrend with slow improvement in the past 6 months, specifically for countries at the lower end of the passport power index.
The worldwide movement gap has expanded. Top-ranked Singapore has visa-free access to 165 more destinations than Afghanistan, at the bottom of the index. By comparison, India, with the world’s largest population, is at the lower end of the index, ranking 80th, with visa-free access to 57 destinations. This more highlights the mobility gap and how it would impact the future of travel.
The U.S.’s divide between countries who are permitted to get in the U.S. without a visa, and those who need to request one was the second-largest, tracking only Australia. While American passport holders can access 184 (out of 226) destinations visa-free, only 44 other citizenships are enabled to pass through U.S. borders visa-free, putting it way down the Henley Openness Index in 78th place.
Henley Passport Index over the past 18 years reveals a boost in global travel flexibility. The typical number of visa-free accessible destinations has actually almost doubled from 58 in 2006 to 109 in 2023. The UAE, for instance, has actually seen a jump of 44 locations in the ranking over the previous decade, adding 107 destinations to its visa-free access score given that 2013.