Barbados passport still highest ranked in region

The Barbados passport has inched up one spot on the ranking of the world’s passports, remaining the highest-ranked in the Caribbean.

With a visa-free score of 161 – the number of destinations that holders of a Barbados passport can enter without a visa – the latest Henley Passport Index Report puts Barbados at 23rd globally, out of 199 different passports and 227 destinations.

Last year, the Barbados passport was ranked 24th with the same score.

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

St Kitts and Nevis are ranked 25th with a score of 157; the Bahamas is 26th with a score of 155; St Vincent and the Grenadines at 29th with a score of 151; Antigua and Barbuda and Trinidad and Tobago are both at 30th with a score of 150; and St Lucia is at 31st with a visa-free score of 146.

At the bottom of the list in the Caribbean are: Haiti, ranked at 95th and a visa-free score of 48; Cuba ranked at 79th with a visa-free score of 64; Suriname ranked at 67th with a score of 77; Jamaica at 61st with a score of 85; and Guyana ranked at 59th with a score of 87.

The report is based on exclusive data provided by the International Air Transport Association.

Explaining its ranking, the report stated: “For each travel destination, if no visa is required for passport holders from a country or territory, then a score with value equal to one is created for that passport. A score with a value equal to one is also applied if passport holders can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA) when entering the destination. These visa-types require no pre-departure government approval, because of the specific visa-waiver programs in place.” (MM)