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Hong Kong’s passport is ranked 18th among the world’s best travel documents, according to the latest rankings released by London-based immigration consulting firm Henley & Partners.
The Japanese passport once again takes first place, offering hassle-free entry to 193 countries.
Singapore and South Korea share second place with 192 countries entering without a hitch. Holders of passports from these countries can visit 192 destinations worldwide visa-free or visa-on-demand.
Taiwan ranks 34th with 145 visa-free destinations, while China ranks 69th with 80 visa-free destinations.
The quarterly report, released on July 19, ranked each country according to the number of destinations its passport holders can reach without prior visas. The Henley Passport Index compares 199 different passports with visa-free access to 227 travel destinations.
The United Kingdom and the United States are ranked sixth and seventh with trouble-free access to 187 and 186 countries respectively.
Canada, Australia, Czech Republic, Greece and Malta are ranked eighth.
In a statement announcing the rankings on July 19, Henley & Partners said the study, which compares a country’s visa-free access to its Global Peace Index score, shows a strong correlation between a country’s passport power and peacefulness.
Low-rated
The lowest ranking countries are represented mostly by non-democracies, with Afghanistan having the lowest score of the 27 destinations that are either visa-free or visa-free.
Stephen Klimczuk of the University of Oxford’s Said Business School said that passport prices have taken on new meaning in light of global upheaval due to factors such as pandemics, war, inflation and political unrest. .
“Now more than ever, it’s a mistake to think that a passport is just a travel document to get you from A to B,” he said.
“The relative strength or weakness of a particular national passport directly affects the quality of life for the passport holder and can even be a matter of life and death in some cases.”
According to data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), passport holders from the Asia-Pacific region are “very limited and unwilling to enjoy their freedom of travel”.
International passenger demand in the Asia-Pacific region was only 17 percent before Covid, the statement said. Demand in the region has hovered around 10 percent over the past two years, while Europe and North America have recovered about 60 percent of global travel levels from before the pandemic.
Bogdan Diordiyev contributed to this report.
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