Muscat – Oman has jumped seven places to 58th in the Henley Passport Index in first half of 2024, which is based on official data from International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Oman was ranked 65th in the 2023 rankings when its citizens could travel visa-free to 82 countries. This has now gone up to 86 destinations.

The index ranks all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

In the GCC, the UAE made it into the top ten for the first time, having added an impressive 152 destinations since the index’s inception in 2006 to achieve its current visa-free score of 185, and rising a remarkable 53 places in the ranking from 62nd to ninth position in the process.

Dr Juerg Steffen, CEO of Henley & Partners, said the country’s meteoric ascent “is the result of  concerted efforts by the Emirati government to position the UAE as a global hub for business, tourism and investment”.

In the GCC, the UAE is followed by Qatar – ranked 46th with visa-free travel to 107 countries – Kuwait (49th and 99), Saudi Arabia (56th and 88) and Bahrain (57th and 87).

Singapore breaks away from the peloton of six countries that shared the top spot on the Henley Passport Index issued at the beginning of the year, reclaiming its title as the world’s most powerful passport in the latest ranking published on July 23.

The city-state also sets a new record score, with its citizens now enjoying access to 195 travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free.

France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain dropped to joint-second place, each with visa-free access to 192 destinations, and an unprecedented seven-nation cohort, each with access to 191 destinations without a prior visa. Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, South Korea and Sweden now sit in third place on the ranking.

The UK hangs onto fourth place along with Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland, despite its visa-free destination score falling to 190. The US, on the other hand, continues its now decade-long slide down the index, dropping down to eighth spot, with access to 186 destinations visa-free.

Afghanistan remains firmly entrenched as the world’s weakest passport, losing access to yet another destination in the past six months, leaving its citizens with access to only 26 countries visa-free – the lowest score ever recorded in history of the 19-year-old index.

Commenting on the July 2024 edition of the Henley Global Mobility Report, Dr Christian H Kaelin, Chairman of Henley & Partners, said, “The general trend over the past two decades has been towards greater travel freedom, with the global average number of destinations travellers are able to access visa-free nearly doubling from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024. However, the global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is now wider than it has ever been, with top-ranked Singapore able to access a record-breaking 169 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan.”

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