Muscat – Oman jumped five places to 60th place in the Henley Passport Index 2024, which is based on official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Oman was ranked 65th in the 2023 ranking when its citizens could travel without a visa to 82 countries. This has now gone to 90 destinations.
An unprecedented six countries share the top spot with visa-free access to a record number of destinations in the 2024 index.
Four EU member states – France, Germany, Italy and Spain – join Japan and Singapore in boasting the most powerful passports in the world, with their citizens able to visit an amazing 194 destinations out of 227 around the globe without visa
The index ranks all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations that their holders can access without a prior visa.
In the GCC, the UAE is the first ranked country (11th) with its citizens able to travel to 183 countries without a visa. It is followed by Qatar – ranked 53rd and visa-free travel in 108 countries – Kuwait (55 and 102), Bahrain (59 and 91) and Saudi Arabia (61 and 89).
Dr. Christian H Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Partners and inventor of the passport index concept, said that although the general trend in the 19-year history of the classification has been towards greater freedom of travel, the global mobility gap between those at the top. and the bottom of the index is now wider than ever. “The average number of destinations that travelers can access without a visa has almost doubled from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024. Top-ranked countries are now able to travel to 166 destinations without a visa in addition to Afghanistan, which is . at the bottom of the ranking with access to only 28 visa-free countries”.
South Korea joins Finland and Sweden in second place with visa-free travel to 193 destinations, and four other EU nations – Austria, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands – share third place with access to 192 .
The rest of the Top 10 is largely dominated by European countries, with the UK climbing two ranks to fourth place with visa-free access to 191 destinations compared to 188 a year ago.
Australian and New Zealand passport holders improve their ranking to sit in sixth place with 189 visa-free destinations, while the United States retains its seventh place with access to 188 destinations without the need for a visa in advance It has been a decade since the United Kingdom and the United States shared the top spot in the index in 2014.
The greatest climbers and climbers
The UAE remains the biggest climber in the Henley Passport Index over the past decade, adding an impressive 106 destinations to its visa-free score since 2014, resulting in a massive jump of 44 places in the rankings from the 55th to the 11th position.
Ukraine and China are also among the Top 5 countries with the most improved ranking over the last ten years (a total net gain of 21 places each), and both climbed another two ranks in the past year. Ukraine is now in 32nd place with 148 visa-free destinations and China is 62nd in the ranking with access to 85 destinations without a prior visa (compared to only 44 in 2014).
