Muscat: The pilot launch of the Unified GCC Tourist Visa will be launched within the fourth quarter of 2025, according to reports quoting the UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism.
Abdulla bin Touq al Marri, who is also chairman of the Emirates Tourism Council, said that the Unified GCC Tourist Visa will be a strategic step towards enhancing tourism integration among the member countries and will constitute a qualitative shift in the tourism sector at the regional level.
He said that while the pilot launch of this visa is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of 2025, the full implementation may be a bit later.
The reports also quoted him as saying that the UAE received 3.3 million GCC visitors in 2024, accounting for 11% of the total hotel guests in the country, including 777,000 from Oman.
The Sultanate of Oman received a total of 3.89 million visitors by the end of December 2024, according to data released by the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
According to NCSI's report, visitors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) topped the list at 1,185,880 visitors, followed by
623,623 Indian visitors.
The Unified GCC Tourist visa or the GCC Grand Tours Visa will make it convenient for non-nationals living in Gulf countries to explore other countries in the region without needing to obtain separate visas.
The application process for the Visa will be completely online. Having a user-friendly online application process that allows tourists to apply for a visa to one country or all six countries in a few short minutes reduces the hassle and time typically involved in obtaining separate visas for each country.
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