Singapore's Passport Strength Surpasses Japan's

Singaporeans are the luckiest travellers in the world since they may enter 192 countries without a visa.

A survey of the world's most powerful passports now puts Singapore at the top, surpassing Japan for the first time. According to the most up-to-date data from the Henley Passport Index, Singaporeans have the most visa-free access of any nationality, allowing them to enter 192 different countries.

The Japanese nation surpassed the Southeast Asian city-state as the best in the world in 2022. Passport holders from Germany, Italy, and Spain all have access to 190 different countries, making them joint runners-up.

For the first time in five years, Japan didn't top the list of most popular tourist destinations; instead, it tied for third place with France, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Luxembourg, and South Korea at 189.

The United States, which had been rated first in 2014, fell to ninth place, its lowest ever. Cornell University's Urban Tech Fellow Greg Lindsay speculated that the United States' falling visa reciprocity rankings over the last decade may be to blame. According to Lindsay's analysis that accompanied the index, "the explanation for the US's downturn is both straightforward to understand and confounding: it isn't trying."

Only 12 extra nations will be accessible to U.S. citizens between 2013 and 2023, the lowest rise of any of the 34 countries placed between 1 and 10 in the Henley Passport Index. Singapore, on the other hand, has gained 25 new nations in the same time period, which has propelled it to the top spot, up five notches from its previous position.

With visa-free travel to just 27 locations, Afghanistan's passport was deemed the weakest in the world, followed by those of Yemen, Pakistan, Syria, and Iraq.

The yearly rating is compiled by Henley & Partners, an immigration consultant located in London, using information provided by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The index rates nations by the number of countries whose people do not need a visa to enter.

 

Source: aljazeera.com