Saudi Arabia has launched a new free transit visa allowing the stopping passengers to stay in the kingdom for about four days.
The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported that The transition visa began to apply on Monday, and visitors can use the Saudi Airlines and Flynas websites and that the tickets will be processed immediately.
SPA further reported that Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented the visa especially for encouraging tourism, which is part of the Vision 2023 strategy.
The transition visa will be issued with plane tickets from Saudi and Flynas and will be helpful for three months.
Earlier this month, the spokesperson of Saudia Airlines, Abdullah al- Shahrani, declared that the airline would offer the service of providing a tourist visa freely when purchasing a ticket.
This is the new mass of visa reforms in Saudi Arabia, which presented recently with the introduction of visa-arrival for certain passport holders in September 2022.
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Apart from this, Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO of the Saudi Tourism Authority, stated in the statement, “Today’s declaration of Saudi’s inaugural Stopover Visa is a benchmark example of combined public and private sector collaboration.”
And, ” four of the Top Ten global paths were in or out of the Saudi airports in 2022, which is a testament to the request of destination Saudi”.
Also, Ahmed al-lKhateeb, Minister of Tourism, added, “The recent Stopover Visa is yet another proof point in Saudi’s commitment to creating and encouraging growth in the tourism sector. “
And ” It is open for the travelers passing through Saudi on our national carriers whether for business, relaxation or Umrah.”
The transit visa for stopover enables those on a transit visa to enter the kingdom to perform Umrah and visit the Prophet’s Mosque, apart from roaming and attending tourism events.
When purchasing n the tickets to visit the kingdom through Saudi Airlines, Flynas passengers will be automatically passed to the unified national visa platform at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When the request is processed, it will automatically be approved and emailed to the passenger.
As per 2019 statistics, the annual earnings of the Saudi tourism sector were 211 billion Saudi Riyals.
As per World Tourism Organization, in 2022, Saudi Arabia topped the G20 countries in the rate of international tourist arrivals.
Conclusion
The above report states the declaration made by Saudi Arabia in granting a four-day visa to travelers who are having a stopover in Saudi.
