One Visa, Six Gulf Countries: GCC Unified Tourist Visa Confirmed for Pilot Launch This Year

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will come up with a common tourist visa, which will enable tourists to visit all six member countries, which include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a single permit. This initiative will be modelled after the Schengen system in Europe, which is designed to make travelling across borders easier and also increase the tourist attractions in the region.

The pilot stage of the visa should be implemented later in the year. At this phase, the authorities will determine the functionality of the system, resolve any issues during its operation and provide a pleasant experience to the travellers. The full implementation will allow tourists not to have separate visas to the countries of the Gulf, simplifying the process of making multi-country trips, increasing their speed, and making them more efficient.

The unified visa will facilitate the integration of the region and make the Gulf a competitive and connected tourism destination. The application is expected to be more of an online one, and this way, the travellers can have their permits done beforehand without the need to fill in a lot of paperwork. The simplified system would be able to appeal to the leisure tourists as well as the business tourists, and induce the tourists to make more frequent stays in the various destinations.

Although certain aspects of the visa, like the cost, the validity period and the eligibility criteria, are still to be established, the officials have already suggested that the visa will be highly accessible and easy to use. The families, group travellers and frequent visitors may be classified as special customers, and this will make Gulf tourism even more attractive.