Passport Index 2021: The coronavirus pandemic saw the complete worldwide travel business coming to a staggering halt for at least 3 months, when nations imposed lockdowns to stop the spread of the virus. With the closure of borders, worldwide mobility fell, top to an all time low in the World Openness Score (WOS), or the measure to assess the openness of the globe based on visa-no cost travel agreements, according to the Arton Capital Passport Index 2021. It also shook up the energy of passports of person nations massively. However, this year, Germany has topped the list of nations in terms of potent passports, obtaining a mobility score of 134. Of these, citizens holding German passports are capable to pay a visit to 99 nations without having requiring a visa and 35 nations exactly where they would want a visa on arrival. German citizens demand visas to pay a visit to 64 nations.
Sweden, Finland and Spain all ranked second, with a mobility score of 133. While all the passport holders of all the 3 nations demand visas for 65 nations, the Swedish passport holders can go to 99 nations without having requiring a visa, and to 34 nations on a visa-on-arrival arrangement. On the other hand, holders of a Finnish passport do not demand visas to pay a visit to 98 nations and can go to 35 nations on a visa-on-arrival. Passport holders of Spain can pay a visit to 36 nations on a visa-on-arrival basis, although they do not demand a visa for 97 nations.
Passports of Denmark, Norway, Switzerland and New Zealand ranked at the third location, with all the nations obtaining a mobility score of 132, requiring a visa for 66 nations. For the fourth location, as quite a few as nine nations are ranked with each other with a mobility score of 131 – Netherlands, France, Portugal, Austria, Luxembourg, Italy, Greece, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Japan and South Korea have a mobility score of 130, ranking at the fifth location.
Passport Index 2021: India’s passport strength
The index placed India at the 61st position, along with Philippines, Bhutan, Benin, Gabon, and Algeria, with all the six nations obtaining a mobility score of 52. Holders of the Indian passport have visa-no cost access to 18 nations, and demand a visa on arrival for 34 nations. On the other hand, Indian passport holders demand a visa to pay a visit to 146 nations, and have a globe attain of 26%.
As compared to final year’s ranking, the mobility score of India remained the identical. However, throughout the period of COVID-19, India had a mobility score of 47. According to historical information of India’s mobility score calculated by the index, which came into existence in 2015, the mobility score of India peaked in 2019 to attain a score of 71, and it was at its lowest in 2016 with a score of 46. Not counting the COVID-19 mobility score, the mobility score in 2020 and 2021 marks the third lowest one for India, with the second lowest score getting 48 in 2015.
Arton Capital Passport Index 2021: Most potent passports throughout COVID-19
The Passport Index 2021 tracked the WOS in between December 31, 2019 and May 31, 2020, taking this as the period of COVID-19 pandemic to account for the extreme travel restrictions place in location by most of the nations. After May, the restrictions eased in most of the nations.
The Index, in its report, noted that ahead of the pandemic, the World Openness Score was at its highest at 21,360. This rapidly plummeted to 12,994, witnessing a drop of 65% to attain its all-time-low position. The report stated that throughout the pandemic, a whopping 67% of the globe was closed for travel.
The Index also calculated the mobility scores of the nations throughout the pandemic, and Belgium came out to be the most potent passport with the highest mobility score in the globe at 112. Even this, nonetheless, was a drop of 67 points for the nation from the earlier ranking. On the other hand, Iraq was the nation with the weakest passport, obtaining the lowest worldwide mobility score of 27. During the pandemic, the typical mobility score of the nations was 65.
After Belgium, the second most potent passport was that of Finland, followed by Austria, Luxembourg, Spain, Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, Sweden and Netherlands.
On the other hand, numerous nations saw a extreme decline in their mobility score due to the pandemic. This loss was the highest for South Korea, which witnessed a decline of 93 points in its mobility score, followed by Canada with a loss of 92 points. Other nations which faced the largest losses in their mobility scores had been Japan at the third location and Singapore at the fourth position, followed by the US, the UAE, Australia, Chile, New Zealand and Argentina.