Travel across the GCC is about to get a whole lot easier, not just for Nationals, but for tourists, too.
Yep, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC, which includes Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, are reportedly in talks to launch a tourist visa that would allow free travel across all borders of the region.
It’s a similar system to what Europe has, in which the ‘Schengen zone’ allows visitors free movement across European borders with one visa.
This would mean that you could land in the UAE and then drive over to Saudi Arabia without a new visa–which could set up a whole new future for the Gulf, and lead to a lot more people coming to the region to go places they otherwise never would have before, just like in Europe.
Very exciting stuff!
GCC officials discuss exciting new Schengen visa system possibility
The plan was revealed at the Arabian Travel Market 2023 in Dubai, as reported by Hotelier Middle East.
There, three GCC officials, including HE Fatima Al Sairafi, Minister of Tourism, Kingdom of Bahrain; Undersecretary HE Abdulla Al Saleh, Government of UAE; and Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO, Saudi Tourism Authority (STA), all spoke positively of the plan, leading to much speculation that this is in the works.
“If long distance travellers come to this region, having a programme to maximise their visit to more than one country is amazing. The visitor will be more happy with visiting several countries, without restrictions crossing borders,” the UAE’s Al Saleh said.
Linking the GCC has already boosted Bahrain
According to Al Sairafi of Bahrain, linking Bahrain to the other GCC countries in their tourism campaigns has led to way more visitors.
“We had 9.9 million visitors in 2022. How? There was one key initiative that year, we started to co-promote Bahrain as a unified destination with the GCC,” said Al Sairafi.
“If all the GCC countries unified their efforts in promotion, the opportunities are incredible,” she continued.
So, how long will it be before this comes into effect? IT’s hard to say. But with so many new tourism destinations popping up and huge investment to get as many people into the region as possible, it’s clear that the best path forward for the region is to work together and show the rest of the globe what our corner of the world has to offer.
Could this mean we’ll be able to travel around on train the same way people do in Europe? We can only dream for now…