RIYADH – The authorities in Saudi Arabia have launched a unified visa platform for all those seeking different visas to visit the kingdom, undergoing transformation at a rapid pace.
The platform called ‘KSA Visa’ would facilitate visa application procedures as part of the drive to woo more and more tourists to the kingdom.
Addressing the Digital Government Forum (DGF) in Riyadh on Tuesday, Assistant Minister for Executive Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abdulhadi Almansouri detailed that the ‘KSA Visa’ is linked to more than 30 agencies, ministries, and the private sector.
The platform would facilitate procedures for obtaining various types of visas, including the Hajj visa or the visit visa for Umrah or tourism as well as work visas.
The government aims to enhance the visitor experience for which the platform will automate the most important visa issuance procedures and would act as a smart search engine for visa sekers to find the right type of visa.
Another important aspect of the platform is the fact that it includes an updated personal file for the visitor to ease the process at the time of re-application in the future.
Saudi Arabia is fast transforming its visa regulations in a bid to attract tourists as part of its Vision 2030 which entails increasing the tourism sector’s contribution to GDP and creating a million job opportunities.
The figures also portray a favorable picture as in 2022, the holy Kingdom recorded 94 million visits, a remarkable 93 percent surge from the previous year, resulting in a tourism expenditure of SR185 billion ($49 billion).
The authorities in Saudi Arabia expect 100 million visits by 2030 and raise the tourism sector’s GDP contribution to 10 percent. For this year, the kingdom also managed to receive over 2 million Hajj pilgrims which was the first time after the Covid-19 that the country welcomed pilgrims in such large numbers.
It bears mentioning that the holy kingdom is now opening up to the outside world providing opportunities to the investors and entrepreneurs to invest in the country and to help achieve the goal of the kingdom to diversify its revenue streams and to move away from the oil sector.
