Unified Tourist Visa Strengthen cooperation with China.
The Gulf countries are ushering in new opportunities for tourism development
Reporter Zhang Zhiwen.
At the recent 44th summit of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), the GCC Supreme Council approved the harmonization of tourist visa measures and authorized the interior ministers of the GCC countries to promote their implementation.
At present, the tourism industry in the Gulf region is recovering rapidly, and countries in the region regard tourism as an important starting point for economic diversification. GCC Secretary-General Al-Budawi said that the GCC's unified tourist visa will help facilitate the movement of people between the six GCC countries and have a positive impact on regional tourism and economic development.
Saudi Arabia's Minister of Tourism, Ahmed Khatib, called the move a "historic step" and said the visa measure will further promote cultural and tourism exchanges among the Gulf countries, strengthen the role of tourism in promoting economic growth, and bring new opportunities for tourism investment and development in member countries. UAE Economy Minister Abdullah Abdullah said the initiative is part of the GCC 2030 Tourism Strategy, which will help increase the economic contribution of tourism and increase the visibility of the Gulf countries in the global tourism market.
In recent years, the Gulf countries have actively introduced various measures to boost tourism. Saudi Arabia plans to increase tourism's contribution to GDP to more than 10% by 2030 and aims to attract 25 million international tourists by 2023The UAE has proposed a "National Tourism Strategy 2031", which aims to attract 40 million overnight tourists and 100 billion dirhams (1 dirham is about 1.) by 203194 RMB) tourism investment;Oman's Vision 2040 aims to achieve an annual tourism output of more than US$22.5 billion by 2040. Countries in the region have also been increasing investment in tourism infrastructure, with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and other countries building or renovating international airports, and encouraging investment in the hotel industry to improve tourism reception capacity.
At the same time, the Gulf countries are working the innovation of tourism products and striving to create high-quality tourism projects. On December 8, the 29th Dubai Shopping Festival in the UAE opened. Over the course of more than a month, Dubai will not only launch traditional shopping** activities, but also launch a series of ** performances and environmental protection activities to showcase Dubai's winter tourism advantages in an all-round way. In Saudi Arabia, the board of directors of New Future City recently announced the creation of a new tourist destination near the Gulf of Aqaba, "Slanna", which plans to use natural resources such as oceans, mountains and river valleys to provide tourists with an up-and-coming getaway from the hustle and bustle.
China has always been an important target market for the Gulf countries to attract foreign tourists. Since the beginning of this year, the Gulf countries have added and opened air routes to major cities in China to further facilitate people-to-people exchanges between the two sides. Not long ago, Xiamen Airlines launched direct flights from Beijing and Xiamen to Doha, Qatar. Marwan Coolirat, Senior Vice President of Qatar Airways Eastern Region, said that the partnership between Qatar Airways and Xiamen Airlines will create more opportunities for tourism and cultural exchange in the context of increasingly close relations between the two countries.
Bahrain's national carrier, Gulf Air, will start direct flights from Bahrain to Shanghai and Guangzhou in January next year, which will be the first time in nearly 15 years that the airline has launched direct flights between Bahrain and China. In the second half of this year, Saudi Arabian Airlines opened a direct flight to Beijing, and Abdullah Shahrani, director of affairs of Saudi Arabian Airlines, said that the opening of direct flights from Saudi Arabia to Beijing has made personnel exchanges between Saudi Arabia and China more convenient and promoted exchanges and cooperation between the two sides in many fields such as economy and trade, investment and tourism.
Many Gulf countries continue to increase their publicity and promotion efforts in the Chinese market. In November, Saudi Tourism Authority held a series of tourism promotion activities in Shanghai, aiming to help Chinese tourists understand the customs and diverse culture of Saudi Arabia, and increase Saudi Arabia's share of the outbound tourism market for Chinese tourists. Qatar Tourism has made full use of the opportunity of hosting large-scale international events such as the Asian Cup Football Tournament and the Doha World Horticultural Expo to increase the promotion of tourism products and launch exclusive tourism** and preferential activities on the Chinese official website.