Palau ranks 50th in the list of most powerful passports in the world according to the latest Henley Passport Index (HPI) with Palauan passport holders able to travel visa-free to 118 destinations.
The HPI published its third quarter update on July 2, listing 199 passports and a total of 227 travel destinations. Each nation’s passport was ranked according to the number of destinations it can access without a visa requirement.
Although Palau’s rank slid down to 50th from previously ranking 49th in January, it maintains the same number of visa-free access to 118 destinations.
Among the Pacific Island Countries (PICs), Samoa has the most powerful passport with its holders able to travel to 130 destinations without a need for a prior visa. It gains 42nd place in global ranking while Solomon Islands and Vanuatu both got the second spot among the PIC passport rankings with their respective countries able to travel visa-free to 129 destinations. Solomon Islands and Vanuatu both placed 43rd in the global ranking.
Other PICs that made it to the top 50 most powerful passports in the world are Tuvalu (126 destinations) which ranked 44th, Tonga (123 destinations) ranked 46th, Marshall Islands (122 destinations) ranked 47th, Kiribati (121 destinations) ranked 48th, and the Federated States of Micronesia (119) ranked 49th.
Meanwhile, Japan and Singapore both took the top spot in the global ranking with their passport holders able to travel to 189 destinations without the need for a prior visa.
Afghanistan, according to the HPI, holds the last spot in the global ranking with the country only able to travel visa-free to 25 destinations.
HPI stated it based the passport ranking on the exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) which possesses the world’s largest database of travel information that is supported by the continuous research by the Henley and Partners Research Department. (Rhealyn C. Pojas)