The GCC includes Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman.
getty
The head of Saudi Arabian tourism wants Taylor Swift to bring her tour to the Middle East. Of course he does; Swift’s Eras tour has a proven track record of boosting economies wherever it goes.
But attracting major events like a Swift tour will require regional cooperation, Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO of the Saudi Tourism Authority, said on Monday at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM). “If we want to get the Taylor Swifts of the world, we can collaborate, with a view to an ‘Arabian tour’,” he told attendees.
Hamidaddin was touting the rollout of the region’s upcoming “unified GCC visa,” a travel permit similar to Europe’s Schengen visa that will allow more than 30 consecutive days of inter-country travel throughout the six Gulf Cooperation Council member nations: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman. While no date has been announced, officials say the visa is expected to launch by the end of 2024.
“In a significant move aimed at simplifying travel logistics and fostering tourism, the Gulf Cooperation Council has given the green light to a unified tourist visa that will allow travelers to visit all six countries,” said Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, the UAE’s economy minister, noting plans to incorporate month-long “grand packages” in the marketing mix.
The visa is expected to be a boon for the region’s cruise industry, since cruise passengers will no longer have to apply for visas for each port of call. “I happen to also sit on the board of Cruise Saudi, and we are investing big on cruise ships as well as ports and cruise terminals,” Hamidaddin said. “We can easily see a big shift from Med to Red.”
It’s difficult to overstate the Middle East’s tourism ambitions or the speed at which the region has become a power player in the global travel arena. Consider the rise of Dubai, a city-state in the United Arab Emirates that’s roughly the size of Jacksonville, Florida, which now has more hotel rooms than Las Vegas.
Saudi Arabia, closed off to leisure tourists until just five years ago, is now awash with a staggering $800 billion in tourism investment. In February, the kingdom hit a major milestone, having attracted 100 million tourist visits seven years ahead of schedule.
Last year was a record-breaker for tourist arrivals in Qatar—a feat considering that the tiny nation had just hosted the FIFA World Cup the previous year, an event that, by the way, left a handful of stadiums ideal for giant concerts.
The tourism ministers of GCC members hope to the unified visa will both streamline travel red tape and encourage travelers to stay longer and travel wider while in the Gulf region, thus boosting their respective and collective economies.