Saudi Arabia Plans To Re-issue Visit Visas In 2021

Illustration of Hajj and Umrah (doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The government of Saudi Arabia plans to reissue tourist visas in early 2021. This move comes after a months of strict suspension by the government and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

"For tourist visas, we are talking about early next year until now. If things improve or if positive developments occur with respect to vaccines, we may speed up and issue them earlier," Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed al-Khateeb said in a virtual interview with Reuters. , Sunday, September 27th.

Tourism is a key pillar of the ambitious reform strategy outlined by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to reduce his country's economic dependence on oil.

The kingdom, which opened its doors to foreign tourists in September 2019 by launching a new visa scheme for 49 countries, hopes the sector will contribute 10 percent to gross domestic product by 2030.

In late February, the Saudis closed its borders to foreign pilgrims and tourists from at least 25 countries. In March, the kingdom banned all travel in and out of the country.

Khateeb said the tourism sector had been hit hard and was expected to see a 35-45 percent decline by the end of the year. However, the focus on domestic tourism during the summer has dampened the blow.

"This pandemic is a systematic risk to everyone. However, we have seen a very strong summer following the January-May lockdown period," Khateeb said.

"We have seen 30 percent annual growth in domestic tourism, which is beyond our expectations," he added.

The Saudi Summer Campaign, which promotes 10 tourist destinations - from beaches and forests to mountain peaks and historic areas - for citizens and residents of the kingdom to visit as a substitute for vacationing abroad, helped raise the average occupancy ratio in hotels to 80 percent. .

Saudi Arabia has so far reported 332,790 cases of COVID-19 and 4,655 deaths so far. The infection rate has been on a steady decline over the past few weeks.