Funviralpark Arton Capital’s rankings currently declare the United Arab Emirates the world’s strongest, but Henry, who uses a different methodology, crowns Japan.
Rankings are updated in real-time as new visa waivers and changes are implemented. The Arton Capital founder spoke with Armand Arton about the findings.
“I realized what freedom is”
“I was born in Bulgaria, so I know what it’s like to travel with a ‘poor’ passport,” says Arton. “My parents worked in Morocco, so when the Schengen Agreement didn’t exist in the ’80s, I had to cross Europe.
“As soon as the Berlin Wall fell, we moved to Canada.Once I got a Canadian passport, I realized what freedom is.”
Canadians are consistently among the most likely to see their communities as good places for immigrants to live in the world, according to Gallup data released Dec. 7. understood.
However, Canada ranks modestly at 71 in the Welcome Country Rank, which covers 199 countries and measures only the number of passports it accepts without a visa, with a visa on arrival, or with an eTA. Easy access to 54 countries. This is slightly ahead of Australia, which grants that privilege to her 46 countries, and the United States, which allows 45.
reciprocity model
“Countries that usually have the ‘best’ passports [in the power rankings] We have the most restrictive visas,” says Arton. [those] The top countries are not the most welcoming – with the exception of Singapore.
“Singapore said, ‘We want to get visitors and be bilateral. [visa-free] where they can go, and [162 nationalities] who can enter the country without [visas], so they believe in reciprocity. ”
Singapore comes 16th in the list of welcoming countries, closely followed by other Asian destinations that have adopted a reciprocity model. Hong Kong is her 21st, South Korea her 33rd.
The top-ranked 23 countries are easily accessible to visitors from 198 out of 199 countries.
As welcome as visa restrictions may be, some countries and regions may not be safe for all travelers to visit. We recommend that you check your country’s travel advisories before planning your trip.
tourism and trade
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Angkor Wat temple complex is Cambodia’s star tourist attraction. It is one of the number one countries in the ranking of welcoming countries.
Tan Chin Sosi/AFP/Getty Images
With passport power increasing all over the world, countries generally becoming more welcoming, and Covid restrictions being lifted more and more, in fact we are in a golden age of global mobility.
No continent more receptive to this open travel environment than anywhere else is Africa, especially Central and West Africa. From Angola to Malawi to South Sudan, 15 of the 23 “most welcoming” countries in the ranking are there.
Then there are island nations such as the Maldives, Samoa and Tuvalu, whose economies could also contribute to the boost that tourism and immigration bring.
Afghanistan is the country with the least open doors, according to Arton Capital’s Passport Index. Only Dominica, Haiti and Micronesia offer visa-free greenlights to their citizens.
By adopting an open approach to travel, the benefits that countries around the world can gain are simple. “Interaction, tourism, trade development and the visa income they generate is very small,” says Arton.
“So when they measure the pros and cons of getting a visa, this is a system that has a lot of documentation, and some countries say, ‘We still want to make millions out of visas.’ We see a trend towards electronic visas, but let’s go online.”
Arton believes the day will come when physical visa documents will disappear. “I believe there will be no more paper visas in the future. You don’t hand in your passport at the embassy and wait a week for someone to stamp it.”
Welcome Country Rank 2022
Most open:
1. Angola, Djibouti, Guinea, Maldives, Comoros, Somalia, Bolivia, Timor-Leste, Malawi, Qatar, Micronesia, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, Tuvalu, Samoa, Gabon, Ivory Coast, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Cambodia, Ethiopia
2. Seychelles, Togo, Uganda, Cape Verde, Mauritania, Suriname
3. Palau, Dominica and Madagascar
4. Malaysia
5. Lesotho
Least open:
86. North Korea, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan
85. Macau, Libya, Eritrea, Bhutan
84. Equatorial Guinea
83. Sudan, Algeria
82. Myanmar and Cameroon
