The Gulf Cooperation Council includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman.
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TThe head of Saudi Arabia’s tourism department wants Taylor Swift to take her tour to the Middle East. Of course he does; Swift’s Eras tour has been proven to spice up the economy wherever she goes.
But attracting major events like a Swift tour requires regional collaboration. Saudi Tourism Authority CEO Fahd Hamidaddin said this on the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) on Monday. “IIf we want the Taylor Swifts of the world, we can work together on an Arabia tour.“, he told the participants.
Hamidaddin announced the launch of the upcoming “single GCC visa” within the region, a travel authorization much like the Schengen visa in Europe that permits greater than 30 consecutive days of travel inside the six Gulf Cooperation Council member states: Saudi Arabia and the United States Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman. Although no date has been announced, officials say the visa is anticipated to launch in late 2024.
“In an important step to simplify travel logistics and promote tourism, the Gulf Cooperation Council has given the green light to a single tourist visa that will allow travelers to visit all six countries,” said Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, the economy minister of the UAE, citing plans to include month-long “grand packages” into the marketing mix.
The visa is anticipated to be a boon for the region’s cruise industry as cruise passengers will now not must apply for a visa at each port of call. “I also happen to be on the board of Cruise Saudi and we invest a lot in cruise ships and ports and cruise terminals,” Hamidaddin said. “We can easily see a big shift from Med to Red.”
It’s hard to overstate the Middle East’s tourism ambitions or the speed at which the region has emerged as a serious player in the worldwide travel market. Consider the rise of Dubai, a city-state within the United Arab Emirates that’s roughly the scale of Jacksonville, Florida, and now has more hotel rooms than Las Vegas.
Saudi Arabia, closed to leisure tourists until five years ago, is now awash with a staggering $800 billion in tourism investment. In February, the dominion reached a serious milestone: attracting 100 million tourists seven years ahead of schedule.
Last yr was a record for the variety of tourist arrivals in Qatar – an achievement considering the small country had just hosted the FIFA World Cup the previous yr, an event that incidentally left a handful of stadiums ideal for Suitable for big live shows.
Tourism ministers from GCC members hope that the unified visa will each simplify travel bureaucracy and encourage travelers to remain longer and travel further during their stay within the Gulf region, thereby boosting their respective and collective economies.
