Travel Convenience Index — determining the Passport Power

The article is written by Dr. Hussain Farooq, President & CEO of HF Corporation — a citizenship advisory firm. The firm can be contacted by emailing at ‘info@hfcorporation.co’.
We live in a globalised and inter-connected world. Although the countries are separated by geographic boundaries yet the countries of the world remain dependent on each other, thereby creating a global economy. Some countries are rich in natural resources while others offer a great appeal for tourists. Some countries have very high human development and per capita income, while others have low human development and low income per capita.
Passport, a travel document issued by the state to its nationals, is the form of identity document that is used for international travel. Just as the strength of the countries vary, so do the value of their passports.
Some passports offer their bearers the convenience of traveling to a great number of countries, around the world, without the need for a prior visa; while other passport-holders have to go through the hassles of obtaining a visa, most of the time, before they can make their travel plans, either for business or pleasure.
An ordinary citizen from a country with well-respected passport, Sweden for example, can travel to a great number of countries, around the world, without the need for obtaining a visa — while a well-respected scholar or a businessman from a less-privileged country, Zimbabwe for example, has to obtain prior visas for most of the countries.
Travel Convenience Index, a part of the Ius Pecuniae Citizenship Index published by HF Corporation, is a uniquely-crafted index that aims to assist the globally-mobile individuals in evaluating the strength of the passports of eight (8) different countries in the world that offer an economic citizenship, also referred to as citizenship by investment.

Although, there are many other countries which have powerful passports, like Singapore, Germany or Norway for example, Travel Convenience Index analyses the power of those passports that can be acquired by making an investment in the respective countries. As of now, eight (8) countries offer the most relevant citizenship-by-investment programs, and hence this index provides a multi-dimensional analysis of these eight passport. More countries will be added to the index as they launch their citizenship programs.
Countries in the Index:
Malta, Cyprus, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and Vanuatu.

All these countries allow foreigners to acquire citizenship, and hence passports, if they make an investment or a contribution in the respective country.
Methodology:
Travel Convenience Index uses a unique methodology for determining the passport power of these eight (8) countries.
The index is crafted by keeping in mind the fact that the strength of a passport can not only be determined by the number of destinations that allow visa-free access to the bearers of that passport. The total number of destinations that
allow visa-free access to the passport-holders of Brunei Darussalam, for example, is less than the number of destinations that allow visa-free access to the nationals of Malaysia, for instance. The nationals of Brunei, however, can travel to Canada and the U.S.A. on an eTA/ESTA — something which can be considered as having visa-free access — while the nationals of Malaysia need to obtain visas to travel to these two important destinations.
TCI, therefore, does not simply rank the countries based on the number of destinations the nationals of these countries can travel to, visa free, or can get a visa-on-arrival at, rather it provides a multi-dimensional evaluation of the travel convenience, afforded to the bearers of these eight (8) passports.
First of all, it evaluates the total number of destinations the passport-holders of these countries can travel to, without the need for a prior visa. Secondly, it evaluates the quality and the overall value of the destinations that allow such visa-free access; while simultaneously also considering the procedure of visa-applications in countries which do not allow visa-free access to the passport holders of any or all of these eight (8) countries.
The value and quality of the destinations is evaluated using the Human
Development Index by the United Nations and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report by World Bank.
Malta and Cyprus are the only two countries, in this index, the passport-
holders of which enjoy the convenience of visa-free access (including visa waiver agreements, visa on arrival facility or convenience of travel on an eTA/eVisitor) to Canada, Brunei Darussalam, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia (eTA/eVisitor for Maltese nationals, and eVisitor for Cypriot nationals).
The total number of countries that allow visa-free access to the nationals of Grenada is less than the number of countries that allow visa-free access to the nationals of Antigua and Barbuda. Grenada, however, ranks slightly ahead of Antigua and Barbuda because of its unique offering — visa-free travel to China, a privilege which is enjoyed only by the nationals of a few countries.
Interestingly, all the eight passports ranked in this index, allow visa-free travel to the UK and European Union (Schengen Area).
To view the complete citizenship report, where these countries are also analysed and compared on the basis of internal factors, such as quality of life, please click on the below-mentioned link:
The article is written by Dr. Hussain Farooq who is the President of HF Corporation, a citizenship advisory firm. HF Corporation on one side advises the high net worth individuals on acquisition of second citizenship and residence, by way of citizenship-by-investment; while on the other hand it runs a government-advisory practice that liaises with different governments to build up strategies for bolstering foreign direct investment, in their respective countries, through (re) structuring and promotion of such programs.
The firm can be contacted via email: info@hfcorporation.co