UAE: New Unified Visa For Nationals And Foreigners Alike For The Member States Of GCC Will Be Implemented "Soon"
New unified tourist visa for free traveling within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is “soon” to be implemented. United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Economy, Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri said during the Future of Hospitality Summit.
The new unified tourist visa would help tourists to travel freely to the countries of GCC. Earlier, only citizens of the GCC countries were allowed this. Expatriates and tourists needed visa for each country, says a report.
The idea of unifying the tourist visa has been on the table earlier. The motive aims at boosting the number of visitors to the countries.
Mr. Al. Marri said, “supporting tourism in any GCC country is considered supporting tourism in all GCC country”. According to the UAE Minister, with providing accessibility to all necessary elements and infrastructures, the tourism sector in the country has climbed steps rapidly.
He also said that 70 percentage of the tourism of United Arab Emirates are foreigners and domestic tourism comprise the remaining 30 percentage.
Mr. Al Marri remarked the aim of UAE is to “double the size of economy” to $3 trillion by 2030. He also said that the two and half day weekend has played a pivotal role in expanding the GDP growth of UAE by 7 percent.
Another official, Abdullah Al Zaabi said the entertainment cities on Yas Island has garnered 85 percentage increase in the number of visitors, compared to the last year”s evaluation. “Last summer witnessed distinguished levels of performance exceeding previous years in terms of guests and hotel occupancy”, said Mr. Zaabi.
According to Mr. Zaabi, UAE expects the visitors to spend $609 millions on the country”s International Association of Amusement Parks and Tourist Attraction. According to Mr. Zaabi, “hospitality sector in the Middle East and Africa region is witnessing amazing growth and major expansions during the current period”.
The new visa will also be a great help for the expatriates to cut down on their expense while crossing the GCC countries. The European Schengen visa model unified visa will enable both nationals and foreigners travel to the countries of the GCC via Road.
With inputs from agencies.
