The two Gulf countries have come together to launch a joint tourist visa, which resembles the ‘Schengen-style’ visa for all the countries in the region and intends to strengthen the tourism sectors of these seven countries.
The announcement was made during the meeting between Saudi Arabia’s Tourism Minister, Ahmad Al Khatib, and Oman’s Salem Al Mahrooqi in Muscat, and both ministers emphasised the platform’s importance in promoting tourism in these countries, VisaGuide.World reports.
The project, led by Saudi Arabia and Oman, is tailored to attract foreign tourists as well as residents and citizens of all Gulf countries; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
This attempt for a unified tourist visa also includes the establishment of seasonal flights as well as setting up a joint tourism calendar, especially as nationals of these countries often move around between Gulf countries.
In the first three months of the year, almost 164,000 Omani tourists visited Saudi Arabia, recording 136 percent, while 49,000 Saudi tourists toured Oman during the same period, represented by a 92 percent increase compared to 2022 levels.
The new Schengen-style visa is developed during this year’s Travel Market, with representatives from all Gulf countries; HE Fatima Al Sairafi, Minister of Tourism, Ministry of Tourism, Kingdom of Bahrain, Undersecretary HE Abdulla Al Saleh, Government of UAE, and Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO, Saudi Tourism Authority (STA).
“We had 9.9 million visitors in 2022. How? There was one key initiative that year, we started to co-promote Bahrain as a unified destination with the GCC. If all the GCC countries unified their efforts in promotion, the opportunities are incredible,” Bahrain’s minister of tourism said when asked whether GCC would choose the same system as the Schengen zone when it comes to visas.
According to STA’s Hamidaddin, last year’s FIFA World Cup was a good pilot test for collaboration between the Gulf countries, highlighting marketing and travel rules, while Saudi’s Hayya Card, which enabled holders to stay in the host country for 60 days, was highly acclaimed.
However, the authorities are aware of the complexity that visas can have, but they are positive that collaboration will help them boost their tourism.
“We really saw the value it adds to the whole region. People spend more when they travel across countries. The day will come, very soon, where tourists will say they are going to the Gulf, similar to how they say they are going to ‘Europe,’ ‘Asia’, and so on,” Al Sairafi pointed out in this regard.
According to Fast Company, tourism in Qatar has surged by 347 percent since the World Cup 2022, with the nation welcoming 730,000 visitors in the first two months of 2023.
Berthold Trenkel, COO at Qatar Tourism, pointed out that the number of tourist arrivals is an initial step towards the six to seven million tourists being welcomed to the country by 2030, as the country also plans to make tourism an important sector, accounting for 12 per cent of the country GDP.
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