Saudi Arabia has officially stopped issuing visa stickers and replaced them with e-visas in seven countries. According to the Saudi Foreign Ministry, the decision to issue e-visas with QR codes came into effect on 1 May 2023.
Countries that will benefit from this initiative include Jordan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
The move to introduce e-visas is aimed at digitizing the consular services by the Saudi Foreign Ministry and creating a new way to issue work, residency, and visit visas in the countries mentioned above.
Minister of Tourism in Bahrain, Fatima Al Sairafi, has revealed that Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including UAE, are considering launching a “Schengen-like visa,” to attract more tourists and generate revenue.
She made this announcement during a panel discussion on “The Future of Travel for the GCC,” at Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2023, taking place in Dubai World Trade Center.
Moreover, Al Sairafi projected that this can happen very soon because people who go to Europe for vacations visit several countries instead of one on a single visa. She stressed that such a move will not only benefit each country but also the entire region.
Speaking about tourism in Bahrain, Al Sairafi emphasized that the country attracted a large number of tourists last year mainly because of co-promoting itself with Saudi Arabia and UAE. This was evident from its tourist numbers from last year when it received around 9.9 million travelers rather than the target of 8.3 million.