Il Italian passport And the “strongest” in the world. Together with 5 other documents, those of Singapore, Japan, France, Germania e Spainat the beginning of 2024 leads the planetary ranking established by theHenley Passport Indexa list that the international company specializing in citizenship and residence consultancy draws up periodically on the basis of data received from Iata, the international airline association.
The passports of the six leading nations they give access to 194 countries, on a list that includes 199 documents and 227 different travel destinations. For the record, in last summer’s surveys, Singapore led the ranking at 192, with two points ahead of the Italy-Germany-Spain trio, who had one more than Japan, Finland, Austria, Luxembourg, South Korea , Sweden and France, and its on the United Kingdom, Ireland, Holland and Denmark.
Everyone earns points – here’s why
Today the sextet leads with just one point advantage Finland, South Korea e Sweden (193), and with two on the quartet Austria, Denmark, Ireland e When (192). It is not difficult to observe how all the passports of top countries, including those that have lost positions, have gained “strength” in absolute value. The explanation is quite simple and must be found in the effect of post-covid rebound.
Carlos Gawronski
With the need to recover lost positions and revenues in the global tourism market, there have been countries that have not only reopened their borders, but in some cases (see China) have started – in many cases unprecedented – visa free campaigns. As expected, they started from the countries they consider most reliable, from those with which they have the best relations. But at least at the beginning, faced with the need to start a procedure on an experimental level, only to then extend it at a later stage, the most populous states are given priority because they are able to bring in higher tourist flows – and revenues. This is a reason that explains not only why Italy, France and Germany are ahead of the other EU countriesbut also the “disappointing” performance of one Swissthe neutral state ante litteram, which we find “only” in the fifth group, at 190, with Malta e Greecepreceded at 191 by another quintet, Belgium, Luxembourg (another “substandard” performance explainable by the same reasons identified for Berna), Norway, Portugal e United Kingdom.
The index criteria and the tail lights
To explain everything better, without going into depth into the criteria adopted by Henley & Partners to draw up the ranking, it will be enough to know that a score of 1 is given whenever a passport guarantees “easy” access to a specific state or territory. By easy we mean without visa, with simple Eta (Electronic Travel Authorization), which is not equated with a visa, or finally with a visa, which however can be requested and obtained directly when entering that particular country. The obligation to request a visa in advance – be it electronic or paper – gives a zero score.
One last curiosity, the one about the bottom of the ranking. L’Afghanistanat 28, is one point less than Syria. Mostly predictable names follow, Iraq (31), Pakistan (34), Yemen (35) and, at 40, i Palestinian Territoriespaired with what is certainly a surprise, in this context: the Nepal.
Joseph Rovirosa