Today's Edition
ALLAN JACOB (ABU DHABI)
The UAE passport is growing stronger, thanks to its diplomatic heft on the world stage, as it makes its mark on the tourism charts to become the first and only Arab country to break into the top 10 of the Henley Passport Index for the year. The stronger UAE passport is a testament to it opening up to the world, more so after the pandemic that served as a model for global recovery.
Coming in at number 10 on the 2025 index, UAE citizens can now travel to 185 destinations without applying for prior visas. Singapore tops the list with access to 195 destinations, with Japan bagging second position with 195. Afghanistan is way down at the bottom of the rankings, at No. 106, with visa-free access to just 26 destinations, two fewer than a year ago, while Syria is at No. 105 (27 destinations).
What's interesting is the speed of the UAE's surge. It's taken just 10 years to add 72 destinations as it jumped 32 places in the coveted rankings.
"The UAE is one of the biggest climbers on the index over the past decade," said the statement from Henley's. Data for the survey was obtained from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The UAE shares the position with Lithuania, Latvia and Slovenia as it continues to change the travel paradigm and leads the modern Arab renaissance that is driven by tolerance, and smart technology while staying true to its hospitality roots and cultural heritage.
Meanwhile, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain fell two places in the ranking to 3rd position. They are joined by Finland and South Korea with access to 192 destinations sans prior visas. Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden share 4th place with 191 destinations while Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the UK citizens have access to 190 visa-free destinations.
Australia is in 6th place with 189 destinations while Canadians can travel to 188 destinations. The US is in 9th place with 186 destinations.
"The very notion of citizenship and its birthright lottery needs a fundamental rethink as temperatures rise, natural disasters become more frequent and severe, displacing communities and rendering their environments uninhabitable. Simultaneously, political instability and armed conflicts in various regions force countless people to flee their homes in search of safety and refuge. The need to introduce Free Global Cities to harness the untapped potential of displaced people and other migrants, transforming them from victims of circumstance into architects of their own futures has never been more pressing or apparent," said Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman of Henley & Partners, and the inventor of the passport index concept.
The report noted that China is among the biggest climbers over the past decade, "ascending from 94th place in 2015 to 60th in 2025, with its visa-free score increasing by 40 destinations in that time".
The US fall on the index is unsurprising to some experts like Annie Pforzheimer, Senior Associate at Washington think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies, commenting: "Even before the advent of a second Trump presidency, American political trends had become notably inward-looking and isolationist.
Even though US economic health relies heavily on immigration, tourism, and trade, voters during the 2024 presidential campaign were fed a narrative that America can (and should) stand alone.
Ultimately, if tariffs and deportations are the Trump administration's default policy tools, not only will the US continue to decline on the mobility index on a comparative basis, but it will probably do so in absolute terms as well. This trend in tandem with China's greater openness will likely give rise to Asia's greater soft power dominance worldwide."
