Khalid Al Dughaim, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Association for Tourism Media and a researcher in tourism economics, considered the unified Gulf tourist visa project, which was recently approved, as a wonderful achievement that is added to the achievements of the Gulf Cooperation Council
Khalid Al Dughaim explained that the recently approved Gulf visa will give its holder the opportunity to visit 6 countries on a unified tourist visa, as it focuses on attracting tourists and keeping them in the GCC countries for a longer period, which enhances Gulf economic integration.
He pointed out that this visa comes within the GCC Strategy 2030, which aims to increase the contribution of the tourism sector to the GDP, as the GCC countries have advanced infrastructure and are qualified for the travel and tourism sector.
According to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Tourism Media Association, the total number of hotel establishments in the Gulf countries reached 10,649 by the end of 2022, and it also includes 837 tourist sites.
Regarding growth rates, Al Dughaim said that the travel and tourism sector in the GCC countries reached strong growth rates before the Corona pandemic, and contributed an average of 9.7% to the GDP of the Gulf economies in 2019, but due to the Corona pandemic, this percentage decreased to 6.5% in 2021, according to data from the World Travel and Tourism Council, stressing that the Gulf countries contributed 3% of the total global tourism traffic in 2019.
Al Dughaim stressed that a set of new policies adopted by Gulf governments to develop the tourism sector in them, most notably the following:
Continued support to the aviation structure
Organizing major global events
Expanding the tourism infrastructure
Diversification of the tourist visa system
Institutional development of the travel and tourism sector
According to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Association for Tourism Media, these policies in support of the tourism sector come in addition to the Gulf countries’ reliance on policies to diversify their economies, by participating in the share of international tourist traffic coming to the region.
He stressed that the policies of integration between the tourism sectors in the GCC countries are a key pillar to enhance the common gains from tourism, pointing out that there are strong opportunities among the Gulf countries to launch joint tourism programs and integrate local aviation sectors in order to maximize the returns of tourism activity and approach to integrated strategies for sustainable Gulf tourism, which enhances the position of Gulf tourism and increases its market share of international tourism.