Within the next two years, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations will introduce a single tourist visa that would enable holders to travel throughout the six Gulf nations, according to Minister of Economy Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri's announcement. Al Marri said that its rollout to be presented at the next GCC summit was unanimously approved at the seventh meeting of GCC tourism ministers in Oman.
The minister stated in a statement that the development of precise laws and regulations pertaining to the visa would begin in 2024 and 2025, depending on how well each GCC nation's internal systems are prepared. According to Al Marri, this new visa would enable visitors to enter six nations with a single, unified tourist visa, thereby promoting economic cooperation throughout the Gulf.
The implementation of the consolidated visa has the UAE equipped to receive the new influx of foreign visitors. According to the minister, the Emirates Tourism Council has developed a tourism route that unites the country's seven emirates. With the complete activation of the unified tourist visa, the UAE will be well-positioned to integrate with the GCC and provide a new, alluring travel offering that will draw travellers from across the world to the Arabian Gulf.
The UAE's tourist industry now contributes 14% of GDP, and in order to meet the country's strategic tourism goals, it would like to increase this percentage to 18%. Al Marri also highlighted the GCC nations' well developed and competent transport and tourist infrastructure. The GCC had 10,649 hotel establishments overall by the end of 2022, an increase of 1.2 percent from the previous year. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has 1,114 hotel establishments in the GCC, which is second only to Saudi Arabia. With a gain of 0.4 percent, the total number of hotel rooms in the GCC came to 674,832.
He said that the joint GCC tourism strategy "2023-2030" calls for a 7% yearly growth in incoming travel to GCC nations. With a target of 128.7 million tourists by 2030, the number of visitors to GCC nations reached 39.8 million last year, indicating a 136.6 percent rise compared to 2021.
The GCC nations want to see an annual growth in incoming visitor expenditure of 8.0 percent. With a 12.8 percent increase from 2022 to 2023, it is predicted to reach $96.9 billion by the end of 2023 and $188 billion by 2030.
He stated that the goal of the GCC nations is to raise the travel and tourism sector's direct GDP contribution by 7% every year. The travel and tourism industry's total value contributed to the GDP of the GCC countries is predicted to reach US$185.9 billion in 2023, up 8.5 percent from US$171.4 billion in 2022.
Al Marri said that the United Arab Emirates leads the GCC in terms of the total number of tourist sites, with 399 out of the 837 sites in the GCC. With 73 of the 224 tourism events in the Gulf area taking place in the UAE, it is also the host of most events and tourist activities in the GCC nations.
