In the latest a long time, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) area, which for incredibly extended has been an important economic engine for international expansion – has also begun to bring in much more tourists. Inside the GCC bloc, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman have been the most well known vacationer nations around the world for visitors from different parts of the globe for several several years. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism sector of the region has witnessed a solid recovery with UAE leading the way. According to a report, vacationer arrivals to the Middle East surpassed even 2019 ranges. The rebound of the tourism sector in the Middle East can be mostly attributed to the soar in readers to GCC nations – UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. When Europe’s tourism sector has also bounced back again substantially, the restoration is not as amazing as that of the Middle East.
The UAE was among the initial nations in the world to take away COVID limits in 2021 with an eye on generating the Dubai expo 2020 profitable. A powerful reiteration of how Dubai expo 2020 gave a potent fillip to UAE’s tourism and aviation sector was the fact that the last three months of 2021 observed the Dubai Intercontinental Airport dealing with eleven.8 million passengers.
For pretty prolonged, Dubai has been the most sought-immediately after desired destination for tourism because of to numerous reasons fantastic air connectivity, acceptable accommodations and becoming attractive for travelers of unique age teams and various interests. It would be pertinent to issue out, that UAE has established an formidable concentrate on of 40 million tourist arrivals by 2031. Saudi Arabia on its portion has been investing heavily in its tourism sector and aims to bring in one hundred million tourists by 2030.
Gulf nations have also been seeking to arise as sporting destinations, this will also assistance the area to attract more worldwide tourists. Qatar hosted the FIFA world cup in 2022. Saudi Arabia is commencing to emerge as an significant hub for soccer, car or truck racing and golf, even though UAE has been internet hosting sporting gatherings for very long. UAE has been an important cricketing centre – being an important neutral location for India and Pakistan, and also obtaining hosted the Indian Premier League (IPL).
GCC Unified Tourist Visa
All through a meeting of the Interior Ministers of the GCC international locations – held on November nine, 2023 in Oman a unified vacationer visa was permitted. Previously in October 2023, tourism ministers of the location had given a go ahead to this visa.
As a result of this, visitors to the GCC will be ready to vacation to six member states of the region — UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait. GCC nations hope that with this provision intercontinental travellers will not prohibit their GCC go to to only a particular region. The new process will be rolled out in 2024-2025.
The conversations with regards to a unified Gulf tourist visa, which seeks to give a fillip to tourism have been on due to the fact extended. It is a single of the essential parts of the Gulf Technique for Tourism 2030.
Whilst commenting on the importance of the visa, the secretary of the GCC, Jasem Albudaiwi reported: “Unified Gulf Tourist Visa undertaking is a new accomplishment extra to the remarkable achievements of the Gulf Cooperation Council, in gentle of the audio directives of the Gulf leaders”.
Why the new visa procedure could assistance in attracting more Indian vacationers
The GCC because of to quite a few variables has the potential of drawing quite a few Indian travellers. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, a major amount of vacationer arrivals to UAE was from India. The initially five months of 2023 witnessed a 23% increase, when compared to the exact time period in 2019, in Indian passengers checking out Dubai.
Not only do Dubai and Sharjah entice Indian visitors, but Ajman and Ras Al Khaimah are also favoured stops. It is not just the UAE, but Saudi Arabia, Muscat, Qatar which have the prospective of attracting much more Indian tourists.
Currently significant techniques are currently being taken with the aim of attracting far more Indian vacationers. Like the UAE, Saudi Arabia has also sought to ease out visa processes. Saudi Arabia has also launched a provision whereby Indian citizens holding valid Schengen and US visas are qualified for an on arrival visa. Aside from addressing visa difficulties, GCC countries like Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are advertising on their own far more aggressively.
The unified Gulf vacationer visa is also probably to make the area significantly extra beautiful for Indian vacationers.
The introduction of a uniform visa is an important action and will benefit the GCC not just in phrases of attracting far more international travelers but also sending out a information that the location is eager to deepen its linkages with the relaxation of the environment at a time when numerous nations are looking inwards. The introduction of a unified visa could be specifically helpful in attracting additional tourists from India.
[Photo by Robert Bock / Unsplash]
The views and thoughts expressed in this post are individuals of the writer.
Tridivesh Singh Maini is a New Delhi based analyst interested in Punjab-Punjab linkages as nicely as Partition Research. Maini co-authored ‘Humanity Amidst Madness: Hope For the duration of and Just after the Indo-Pak Partition’ (New Delhi: UBSPD, 2008) with Tahir Malik and Ali Farooq Malik. He can be attained at [email protected].
