In a few weeks, I will be fully vaccinated with both shots of BioNTech/Pfizer and therefore ready to travel internationally again. I would like to identify destinations that are least locked down so that I could decide where to travel. Is there a ranking of nations based on how open everything is there? Coupled with IATA's COVID travel map I could then narrow it down to countries that also allow foreign citizens to enter for the purposes of tourism.
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One easy way to figure out the true state of lockdowns is to look at mobility ratings. People stop traveling around when restrictions are high and go back to normal lives when restrictions are low. Using data from Google Mobility we can calculate the mobility rating for every country in the world which has enough Google Maps users. We'll use the "Retail & recreation" category which is probably the most relevant for tourism. It is summarized by Google as:
Mobility trends for places like restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, and movie theaters.
As of April 17th 2021, here is the 14-day average for the countries tracked by Google. Roughly speaking, anything with a score below -30 is fairly locked down. The last column is based on data from this website, which seems fairly accurate.
| Country name | Mobility index | US Citizens allowed? |
|---|---|---|
| Zambia | 18 | Yes |
| Fiji | 13 | No |
| Pakistan | 12 | No |
| Zimbabwe | 11 | No |
| Ghana | 9 | Yes |
| Botswana | 9 | No |
| Cote d'Ivoire | 9 | No |
| Mali | 9 | No |
| Papua New Guinea | 7 | No |
| Nepal | 6 | No |
| Togo | 6 | No |
| Angola | 5 | No |
| New Zealand | 3 | No |
| Nigeria | 1 | No |
| Saudi Arabia | 0 | No |
| South Korea | 0 | Yes |
| Thailand | -2 | Yes |
| Cameroon | -2 | No |
| Tanzania | -5 | No |
| Kenya | -5 | Yes |
| Laos | -6 | No |
| Nicaragua | -6 | Yes |
| Sri Lanka | -6 | No |
| Tajikistan | -7 | No |
| Bangladesh | -7 | Yes |
| United Arab Emirates | -7 | Yes |
| Senegal | -7 | Yes |
| Benin | -7 | No |
| Vietnam | -8 | No |
| United States | -8 | Yes |
| Namibia | -8 | Yes |
| Australia | -9 | No |
| Rwanda | -9 | Yes |
| Taiwan | -9 | No |
| Egypt | -9 | Yes |
| Belize | -9 | Yes |
| Russia | -10 | No |
| Qatar | -10 | No |
| South Africa | -11 | Yes |
| Singapore | -11 | No |
| Haiti | -12 | Yes |
| Indonesia | -12 | No |
| Japan | -12 | No |
| Trinidad and Tobago | -13 | No |
| Aruba | -13 | Yes |
| El Salvador | -13 | Yes |
| Mongolia | -14 | No |
| Hong Kong | -14 | No |
| Bahrain | -14 | Yes |
| Mozambique | -15 | Yes |
| Gabon | -16 | Yes |
| Morocco | -16 | No |
| Georgia | -18 | Yes |
| Uganda | -18 | No |
| Israel | -18 | No |
| Malaysia | -19 | No |
| Kyrgyzstan | -20 | No |
| Belarus | -20 | No |
| Ecuador | -20 | Yes |
| Puerto Rico | -20 | No |
| Antigua and Barbuda | -21 | Yes |
| Sweden | -21 | No |
| Kazakhstan | -21 | No |
| Lebanon | -22 | Yes |
| Serbia | -22 | Yes |
| Bolivia | -23 | Yes |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | -23 | Yes |
| Guatemala | -23 | Yes |
| Moldova | -23 | No |
| Denmark | -24 | No |
| Mexico | -24 | Yes |
| Romania | -25 | No |
| Jordan | -25 | Yes |
| Ukraine | -25 | Yes |
| Oman | -26 | No |
| Latvia | -26 | No |
| Croatia | -27 | No |
| The Bahamas | -27 | Yes |
| Canada | -27 | No |
| India | -27 | No |
| North Macedonia | -29 | Yes |
| Dominican Republic | -31 | Yes |
| Spain | -31 | No |
| Costa Rica | -31 | Yes |
| Finland | -31 | No |
| Cape Verde | -32 | No |
| Bulgaria | -32 | No |
| Honduras | -33 | Yes |
| Paraguay | -34 | Yes |
| Venezuela | -34 | No |
| Argentina | -35 | No |
| Kuwait | -35 | No |
| Panama | -35 | Yes |
| Hungary | -36 | No |
| Turkey | -36 | Yes |
| Switzerland | -37 | No |
| Estonia | -37 | No |
| Colombia | -37 | Yes |
| Liechtenstein | -38 | No |
| Luxembourg | -39 | No |
| Malta | -39 | No |
| Portugal | -39 | No |
| Norway | -40 | No |
| Netherlands | -40 | No |
| Brazil | -40 | Yes |
| Belgium | -41 | No |
| Uruguay | -42 | No |
| Lithuania | -42 | No |
| Poland | -43 | No |
| Ireland | -43 | Yes |
| Cambodia | -44 | No |
| Greece | -44 | No |
| United Kingdom | -45 | Yes |
| Germany | -45 | No |
| Italy | -45 | No |
| France | -45 | No |
| Jamaica | -46 | Yes |
| Peru | -46 | Yes |
| Barbados | -47 | Yes |
| Slovakia | -50 | No |
| Czechia | -50 | No |
| Philippines | -51 | No |
| Austria | -52 | No |
| Slovenia | -53 | No |
| Mauritius | -60 | No |
| Chile | -60 | No |
| Myanmar (Burma) | -74 | No |
I will update this list once a month until it stops being relevant or until Google stops publishing its mobility data.
Daniil
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JonathanReez
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1
I asked a very similar question one year ago but it got closed: Where can I find an up-to-date list of COVID-19-related curfews and business closures in different countries?
Anyway here was my attempt of answer:
- Wikipedia has a page on COVID-19 related curfews and lockdowns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_related_curfews_and_lockdowns (thanks Willeke for pointing to that resource).
- Dataset on coronavirus government countermeasures (per country/region/city?)
- The websites of the local US embassies often mention nationwide or local curfews, and seem to be quite frequently updated, e.g. https://mx.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/covid-19-information/, https://do.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/ https://ht.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information, https://ec.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information-ecu-2/
Franck Dernoncourt
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