Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — For busier business travelers who regularly find themselves called upon to travel to a string of countries on short notice, up-to-date information on countries that require visas or electronic travel authorization (eTA) is essential.
Herein lies the role of passport indicators.
There are several competing indices in the market, including Arton Capital’s Passport Index and the Henley Passport Index, which measure the relative leverage of citizens’ travel documents according to the number of countries their holders can visit without a visa or with a visa on demand. .
The UAE’s passport was declared the strongest in the world by Arton Capital, while the Henley Index, which uses a different approach, awarded the title to Japan.
On the other hand, there are countries whose doors are open – at least in terms of visas.
Arton Capital measures this in its ranking of welcome countries and its 2022 list provides some great insights into the current state of global mobility.
Rankings are updated in real time, as changes are implemented or new visa waivers are issued.
CNN spoke with Armand Arton, founder of Arton Capital, about its findings.
I realized what freedom means.
“I was born in Bulgaria, so I know what it’s like to travel with a bad passport,” says Arton.
“My parents were working in Morocco, so I had to cross Europe when there was no Schengen in the 1980s. Once the Berlin Wall came down, we moved to Canada. Once I got my Canadian passport, I realized what freedom means,” he continues.
Gallup data, released December 7, found that Canadians are consistently among the most likely in the world to view their communities as suitable places for immigrants to live.
Canada also ranks first in Gallup’s Immigrant Admissions Index, and its government recently announced that it wants to bring in 1.5 million immigrants by 2025, to bridge the gap in its economy caused by an aging population.
However, according to the Welcoming Countries Ranking, which looks at 199 countries and measures them solely in terms of the number of passports they accept visa-free, with visa-on-arrival or with eTAs, Canada ranks at a lowly 71st, allowing 54 countries easy access. .
This number is slightly higher than Australia, which grants this privilege to 46 countries, and the United States, which allows 45 countries easy access.
reciprocity model
“Typically, the countries with the best passports[in the authority’s rankings]have the most restrictive visas,” Arton explains.
“If you take (those) countries with the highest rating, they are not the most welcoming – except for Singapore,” he says.
Singaporean passport holders can access 170 countries without a visa, while Singapore welcomes 162 nationalities to their country without visas.
Aarton adds:So Singapore believes in reciprocity.”
Singapore ranks 16th in the ranking of welcoming countries, followed by a few other Asian destinations that adopt the reciprocity model, such as Hong Kong in the 21st rank, and South Korea in the 33rd rank.
As for the countries that rank first, they include 23 countries, all of which provide easy access to visitors from 198 out of 199 countries.
Although these countries may welcome travelers in terms of visa restrictions, some of them may not be safe for everyone.
It is recommended that you review the travel advisories for your country before planning any trips.
Tourism and trade
And passports are getting stronger around the world, as countries in general are becoming more welcoming, with COVID-19 restrictions increasingly being lifted.
The continent that has embraced this open travel environment more than anywhere else is Africa, especially Central and West Africa, with 15 of the 23 African countries in the ranking as “most welcoming”, from Angola to South Sudan.
And there are island countries, including the Maldives, Samoa and Tuvalu, whose local economies could benefit from visitors and immigrants.
According to Arton Capital’s Passport Index, Afghanistan is the country with the fewest open doors.
The benefits to countries around the world of an open approach to travel are “cultural exchange, tourism and trade development, for the very small amount of visa they get”.
Arton believes the day will come when the physical visa documents will run out. “We believe that in the future, paper visas will disappear. You will not present your passport at an embassy and wait for a week for someone to stamp it,” he said.
The following is the ranking of the most welcoming countries in the world for the year 2022
The most open:
- Qatar, Angola, Djibouti, Guinea, Maldives, Comoros, Somalia, Bolivia, Timor-Leste, Malawi, Micronesia, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, Tuvalu, Samoa, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda , Cambodia, and the Congo
- Seychelles, Togo, Uganda, Cape Verde, Mauritania and Suriname
- Palau, Dominica, and Madagascar
- Malaysia
- Lesotho
Least open:
86. North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan
85. Macau, Libya, Eritrea and Bhutan
84. Equatorial Guinea
83. Sudan and Algeria
82. Cameroon and Myanmar
