Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman on Wednesday chaired the 40th meeting of the Interior Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and and approved the unified Gulf tourist visa project.
The scheme would allow tourists single-visa access to all the GCC member states like a Schengen visa without the need to have separate entry permits.
Currently, citizens of GCC countries enjoy visa-free travel between the member states but tourists and residents are required to obtain separate visas to access each of the six countries.
According to the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, " The unified Gulf visa will facilitate the smooth movement of residents and tourists between the Gulf countries, and this has positive economic and tourism implications."
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Earlier this month, Salim bin Mohammed al Mahrouqi, Minister of Heritage and Tourism, announced the unanimous approval of the GCC common or unified tourism visa.
"The implementation of this visa will commence soon, once all necessary mechanisms are in place. “There is unanimous agreement, in terms of the importance of this matter. There will be a number of follow-up meetings to see how we can proceed on this to reach a full agreement on it," the minister made this announcement after the regional ministers' meeting held at the Oman Across Ages Museum in Manah.
It may be noted that the percentage of intra-GCC tourism among the total international tourists was 29.7 per cent, with a growth rate of 98.8 per cent compared to 2021.
As per The Gulf Tourism Strategy (2023-30), the number of inbound visits must increase by 7 per cent annually until 2030, which will lead to an increase in tourist spending by eight per cent and that by local GCC tourists by 2.4 per cent.
The tourism ministers' meeting sought to enhance cooperation, integration, and empowerment for tourism development in the GCC by adopting common initiatives and programmes, which should be necessarily implemented as per a timetable.
The Middle East is among the fastest-recovering tourism markets in the world. The Sultanate of Oman was ranked 18th worldwide as Oman's recovery percentage was 14 per cent for the first seven months of 2023, compared to the pre-pandemic 2019 figures.
The GCC has so far registered more than 17 sites on the World Heritage List of UNESCO, and the total number of visitors to the Gulf Cooperation Council countries reached 39.8 million visitors in 2022, achieving a growth rate of 136.6 per cent compared to the previous year, and spending of inbound visitors to the GCC countries was $85.9 billion, with a growth rate of 101.2 per cent compared to the 2021 figures.
The GCC seeks to increase the contribution of the tourist sector to the GDP by 7 per cent annually by 2030.
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