Saudi Arabia to provide tourist visas for Gulf nationals
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plans to introduce tourist visas for Gulf nationals as well as to invest more than $200 billion between now and 2030 to increase the tourist sector’s contribution to the Kingdom’s GDP to 10%. .
In an interview with CNBC, Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed Al-Khatib stated that the tourist visas issued by the Kingdom in 2019 “still remain, and there are no special limits for individuals coming for tourism,” adding that visas for Gulf residents will be issued shortly.
According to the minister, the Kingdom also wants to increase tourism’s contribution to creating jobs for citizens from 3% in 2019 to 10% by 2030. The number of jobs in the industry has increased by roughly 15% in the last three years.
The Arab Gulf states are experiencing rapid population expansion, owing mostly to the influx of international expatriates.
Foreigners outweigh the population of Arab nations in the UAE and Qatar. In the UAE and Qatar, foreigners made up roughly 88.53 percent and 87.3 percent of the overall population, respectively.
The demographic and economic disparity between the GCC countries and Asia’s emerging countries has prompted employees to migrate from their densely populated areas to the Gulf States in search of jobs.