The South African Passport has seen good times and ‘eish’ times. But, a comeback moment recently saw the 2023 ranking climb from previous years, marking the strongest ranking post-pandemic!
Global (21 July, 2023) — South Africa’s passport is moving onto better rankings; a comeback moment for the green-gold pocket rocket post-pandemic!
The 2023 Henley Passport Index ranks the world’s passports annually and considers other travel accessibility factors like visa requirements. Their data determined that South Africa’s passport has a ranking of 52nd in the world for 2023—the strongest our passport has been since 2020.
In post-pandemic years, South Africa’s passport took a few nose-dives. However, we’ve landed a comeback in 2023; up six rankings from 2021 and three from 2022.
As for visa requirements, South African passport holders can access a lot of the world visa-free (according to the data, this access extends to 106 destinations, but some of these require visas on arrival).
Fully visa-free destinations include Ireland, Qatar, Bahamas, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Botswana, Mauritius, Kenya and Mozambique. You can find the full list (including visa-on-arrival countries) here, or visit the Global Passport Index for all types of visa needs.
However, if you’re South African you don’t need any visa to travel to the Best City in the World according to the Telegraph Travel Awards because Cape Town won the crown yet again!
In another nod of good news for South African tourism, SA was also deemed the best country to travel to.
by 