Unified GCC Tourist Visa Nears Launch, Aims to Boost Regional Stays

The long-anticipated unified GCC visa is lastly nearing rollout, two years after it was first authorised. The brand new visa will enable vacationers to maneuver freely amongst any Gulf Cooperation Council nation — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — underneath a single allow.

GCC Secretary Common Jassem Al-Budaiwi mentioned the visa can be launched “quickly” following a gathering with the bloc’s inside ministries this week.

The initiative was first floated in Might 2023 throughout a convention in Dubai, the place ministers from throughout the Gulf signaled their intent to duplicate the European tourism mannequin and encourage seamless, cross-country journey. Official approval got here in October 2024.

Tourism Advantages

Since its announcement, tourism leaders throughout the area have repeatedly pointed to the visa’s potential to remodel customer flows.

At a Dubai tradeshow in Might 2024, Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, the UAE’s Minister of Economic system, mentioned the visa would unlock “grand packages” lasting as much as a month.

“The unified vacationer visa will enable vacationers to go to all six international locations,” he mentioned. “By way of the GCC grand excursions we’re aiming to complete, vacationers will spend greater than 30 days within the area.”

Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Growth Authority Chairman Khalid Jasim Al Midfa, talking on the identical occasion, added: “One of many principal goals is to increase the size of keep. In leisure, folks can journey as much as 4 weeks. We wish them to mix their holidays throughout the GCC.”

Raki Phillips, CEO of the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Growth Authority, additionally welcomed the plans on the Skift International Discussion board East 2023.

“This new Schengen-style visa is large for [GCC] tourism and Ras Al Khaimah will see an enormous profit,” he mentioned.

Phillips careworn the necessity for a unified mindset: “There may be nothing extra essential than a collaborative strategy. We should always compete collaboratively. On this a part of the world, we wish to be collaborative. That would imply visa processing, lodges, and airways.”

At its core, the brand new visa goals to cut back obstacles and make journey throughout the Gulf easier and extra interesting.

“We’ve got to remove the burden of journey,” Phillips mentioned. “We wish to discover these friction factors and get rid of them. Journey should be extra accessible.”

A Unified Gulf

In October 2023, Al Marri informed UAE state information that the visa is a part of a wider technique between now and the tip of the last decade. “This initiative is an integral a part of the GCC 2030 tourism technique, designed to raise the tourism sector’s contribution to the GDP via elevated inter-GCC journey and elevated resort occupancy charges, reworking the GCC right into a pre-eminent international vacation spot for each regional and worldwide vacationers.”

He acknowledged that the GCC joint tourism technique “2023-2030” targets an annual improve of seven% in inbound journeys to GCC international locations, with a goal of reaching 128.7 million guests by 2030.