Written by By Staff Writer
(CNN) — For travelers interested in traveling a little easier, a new survey by Ipsos (which you can read in full here) has the answer: the Emirates-owned Platinum Passport.
The world’s most powerful passport, whose members span a broad range of cultures and business sectors, is now 10,000 km shorter than the mythical Golden Passport.
The survey found that the upgraded passport has a day-long validity period of 21 days, two more than the previous version.
‘Employer-neutral’
The new Silk Road passport, set to be available in the fourth quarter of 2019, was created in cooperation with the Global Passport Alliance — a civil society organization of 143 member states representing more than 90% of world trade.
“Ipsos travels are world’s biggest, global travel industry ‘freeloaders’ — people who ‘travel light’ because they know they never have to be away from home for more than 14 days without travel insurance,” says Ana Avelar Gomez — who oversaw the research — in a press release.
“The new Silk Road Passport is able to take on this burden, permitting you to attend key international meetings, personal business, and follow your favorite cultural events of your choice,” she adds.
“By providing a range of employer-neutral membership policies, and ‘travel insurance’ services that are available to all employees, it can be used as a registration and travel document for all sorts of important global meetings and events.”
The survey found that 32% of Asian travelers have already signed up for the new passport while 70% of Canadian business and leisure travelers said they would join the organization if it was free.
You need 75% to get a Golden Passport. CNN
Internationalized
The Platinum Passport was unveiled in November at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM), an industry convention held in Dubai.
The new passport is available to anyone with an airline-issued travel document who is currently traveling to more than 100 countries.
The UAE has secured 54 member nations so far, according to the Global Passport Alliance’s website.
“The Platinum Passport has been created in partnership with the Global Passport Alliance, and is intended to help organizations better utilize travel as a way to engage and collaborate with their stakeholders and stakeholders from other industries,” a spokesperson from the Emirates subsidiary said to CNN affiliate WAM.
“It will also help their international partners increase business and access to global business events at their embassies.”
Golden Passport — a life-long passport that spans more than 100 countries — only operates in 63 countries, including the UK and Canada.
