The report sheds light on the evolving landscape of travel convenience. This includes Tourist Visa Open Table It measures the extent to which tourism is facilitated and how open a country is in terms of visa facilitation for tourism purposes. Further, Movement scores Included is an in-depth analysis to indicate the extent to which citizens around the world are subject to visa policies. Reciprocity of visa policies.
Key findings include:1:
Regional Open Scores:
- Return to pre-pandemic levels of openness: Transparency of destinations for international travel has returned to pre-pandemic levels following the lifting of travel restrictions related to Covid-19. As a result of the pandemic, new travel facilities such as „nomadic visas” also emerged.
- A decline in traditional visa requirements: Fewer people worldwide now require a traditional visa to travel, down from 77% in 2008 to 59% in 2018. 47% In 2023.
- Visa exempt travel: 21% The world population not requiring any kind of visa increased by 17% in 2008 and 20% in 2018.
- Visa on arrival: 14% of the world's population can apply for a visa on arrivalAn increase from 6% in 2008 and 15% in 2018.
- eVisas: 18% of the world's population Applications for eVisas increased by 3% in 2013 and 7% in 2018.
The report looks at visa regulations for tourism by region, highlighting:
- Asia and the Pacific scored the highest openness of all world regions.
- Southeast Asia, East Africa and the Caribbean are the most open subregions.
- The largest increase in open exposure since the last report in 2018 was seen in South Asia and West Africa.
- The most restricted areas are in Central and North Africa, North America, and Northern and Western Europe.
- Visa exemptions are particularly high in the Caribbean and Central America.
- Visa on Visa is common in East Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and West Africa.
- Traditional visa requests in the Middle East will decrease from 71% of the world's population in 2015 to 57% in 2023.
- eVisas are widespread in West and East Africa and South Asia.
Recommendations for streamlined travel
The report underscores the important role of visa policy reforms in fostering tourism growth. Key recommendations include integrating tourism perspectives into visa strategies, targeting visa-waiver programs for low-risk traveler markets, and expanding visa-on-arrivals. Additionally, clear communication of visa policies is critical, along with a streamlined visa application process, accelerated processing times, and optimized entry procedures for an enhanced visitor experience.
Related links
1. Data collection and validation took place from January to May 2023.
About UN Tourism
The World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) is the United Nations agency responsible for promoting responsible, sustainable and globally accessible tourism.
As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UN Tourism promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and provides leadership and support to the sector in promoting knowledge and tourism policies globally.
Our priorities
Top tourism on the global agenda: Recommends the value of tourism as a driver of socio-economic growth and development, its inclusion as a priority in national and international policies and the need to create a balance for the growth and prosperity of the sector.
Promoting Sustainable Tourism Development: Support sustainable tourism policies and practices: policies that make optimal use of environmental resources, respect the socio-cultural integrity of host communities and provide socio-economic benefits to all.
Knowledge, Education and Capacity Building: Support countries to assess and address their needs in education and training and provide networks for knowledge generation and exchange.
Enhancing Tourism Competitiveness: Enhance the competitiveness of UN Tourism Members through excellence in areas such as knowledge generation and transfer, human resource development and policy planning, statistics and market trends, sustainable tourism development, marketing and promotion, product development and risk and crisis management.
Contribution of Tourism to Poverty Reduction and Development: Maximizing the contribution of tourism to poverty reduction and achieving the SDGs by making tourism a tool for development and promoting the inclusion of tourism in the development agenda.
Building Partnerships: Build a more sustainable, responsible and competitive tourism sector with the private sector, regional and local tourism organizations, academic institutions and research institutes, civil society and the UN system.
Our system
Members: The UN is an intergovernmental organization. Tourism has 160 member countries, 6 associate members, 2 visitors and more than 500 associate members.
Elements: The General Assembly is the highest organ of the organization. The Executive Committee, in consultation with the Secretary General, takes all measures to implement the decisions and recommendations of the General Assembly and reports to the Assembly.
Secretariat: The UN Tourism Headquarters is located in Madrid, Spain. The Secretariat is led by the Secretary-General and is organized into departments covering issues such as sustainability, education, tourism trends and marketing, sustainable development, statistics and the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), destination management, ethics and risk and crisis management. The Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Department implements development projects in more than 100 countries worldwide, while the Regional Departments for Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East support the UN. Act as a link between tourism and its 160 member countries. The Affiliate Members Department represents over 500 Associate Members of UN Tourism.
UN Tourism Communication Department
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