The unified tourist visa for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has been officially approved.
Announcing the decision, the United Arab Emirates Minister of Economy, Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, said that the visa will be launched soon, VisaGuide.World reports.
He stressed that the visa will make it easier for travelers to visit the six GCC countries, or more specifically, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
The new changes are considered very important towards better and easier regional travel.
The single (GCC) tourist visa has been approved and waiting now to be implemented, hopefully, soon. Now, it is with the Ministry of Interior and the relevant stakeholders and they should look into it.
The new visa, known as the GCC Grand Tours Visa, is similar to Europe’s Schengen system, facilitating the travel process for its members. It means that nationals from GCC countries won’t be eligible to apply separately for a visa for each country.
GCC Grand Tours Announced in May 2024
In May 2024, the UAE Minister of Economy, Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, announced the introduction of the new GCC Grand Tours visa that allows tourists to spend more than 30 days in Gulf countries.
Marri’s announcement came during the opening of the annual travel and tourism event held in the Arabian Travel Market (ATM).
In a significant move to simplify travel logistics and support tourism, the Gulf Cooperation Council has given the green light for a unified tourist visa that will allow travelers to visit all six countries. Thanks to the GCC “Grand Tours” that we are working on and intend to complete, we will enable tourists to spend over 30 days in the region.
Back then, the Minister said that once taking effect, the new visa will contribute to highlighting the diverse tourism destinations in Gulf countries, bringing in and retaining tourists for longer periods.
Previously, the GCC’s Statistical Centre figures revealed that in 2023, a total of 68.1 million people visited the region, while tourism brought a total of $110.4 billion
In addition, the statistics from the Statistical Center also revealed that the figures were up by 42.8 per cent in comparison to 2019, before the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.