350,000 tourist visas have been granted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the last quarter of 2019, which were also the first three months of the newly enrolled Saudi Arabian tourist visa scheme.
After the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia issued about 47,000 tourist visas in the first month of the launch of the tourist visa program, two months later, this number reached about 350,000 visas granted.
The chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) Ahmad Al-Katib, expects the number of arrivals will increase in 2020 as the Kingdom has made it possible for holders of valid UK, US and Schengen visas, to get tourist visas as well, regardless of their citizenship.
“We are working on re-formulating hotel licenses to make them more attractive to investors and for training people,” Al Khatib told to local reporters regarding Saudi Arabia’s efforts to boost tourism.
Saudi Arabia started granting tourist visas to the citizens of 51 world countries as of September 27, in a bid to develop the tourism sector. Before that, Saudi Arabia has issued visas only to resident workers, business travelers, and Muslim pilgrims. The latter are given special visas to travel to holy sites.
Later in mid-October, the Kingdom announced the decision to extend the possibility of getting a tourist visa to those who already hold a Schengen, UK or US visa. The sole condition is that these visas must have been used by their holders at least once, but they must still be valid at the time of travel to Saudi Arabia.
Moreover, the Saudi Directorate General of Passports (Jawazat) and the Ministry of Haj and Umrah are currently working on a possible introduction of a new visa, through the portal of the Ministry of Interior. The new visa, which might be called the “host visa” will permit citizens and expatriates of the Kingdom to sponsor three to five people traveling to Saudi Arabia for Umrah.
However, while the Saudi citizens will be eligible to sponsor anyone they want to bring in, expatriates can only do so for their close relatives.