Filenews 20 July 2022 - by Evagoras Prokopiou
In 15th place globally is the Cypriot passport, as it offers visa-free access to 176 countries in 2022, according to the Henley Passport Index, based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
In this position, the Cypriot passport has been in this position since 2020, falling from 14th place. At its best, our passport had climbed to 12th place in 2006, while at its worst it sank to 20th in 2012. As a reminder, the Henley Passport Index compares the visa-free access of 199 different passports to 227 travel destinations.
The top ten and the last
Japan ranks first in the index - the initial ranking of all passports in the world, according to the number of destinations that their holders can access without a previous visa - with a record score without a visa or visa upon arrival of 193, while Singapore and South Korea jointly come in 2nd place, with a score of 192.
EU member states dominate the remaining top ten in the rankings, with Germany and Spain jointly in 3rd place, with access to 190 visa-free destinations. Finland, Italy and Luxembourg follow closely in common 4th place with 189 destinations and Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden share 5th place with their passport holders being able to travel to 188 visa-free destinations worldwide. Both the UK and the US have fallen by one ranking, to 6th and 7th place, respectively. Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the index, with its nationals only having access to 27 visa-free destinations worldwide.
What the IATA data show
However, despite the unparalleled and unprecedented global access granted to citizens of these first three countries during the index's 17-year history, international passenger demand in the Asia-Pacific region reached only 17% of pre-Covid levels, according to the latest IATA statistics. Having hovered below 10%, most of the last two years. This number is far behind the global trend, where markets in Europe and North America have recovered to around 60% of travel mobility levels before the crisis. While if we refer to the Cypriot travel data, the Cypriots returned to travel with a more than triple increase this June compared to the same period last year.
