The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will roll out the pilot phase of its long-awaited unified tourist visa in the fourth quarter of this year.
Modeled after the Schengen visa, the GCC Grand Tourist Visa will enable foreign visitors to travel across all six member states — the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait — with a single permit, says the UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism and Chairman of the Emirates Tourism Council, Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri.
Al Marri described the initiative as a “strategic step towards deeper regional integration” that will strengthen the Gulf’s position as a single tourism hub. However, he did not provide an exact launch date. Full implementation is expected at a later stage.
Speaking to WAM, the UAE news agency, Al Marri highlighted the UAE’s expanding tourism sector, noting that commercial licenses in tourism-related fields — including hospitality, aviation, and digital travel services — reached 39,546 by mid-September 2025, a 275 percent increase compared to mid-September 2020.
In a June 2025 he told the Khaleej Times, the visa had already been approved and was awaiting rollout following coordination with the Ministry of Interior and other stakeholders.
Industry experts expect the unified visa to be a game-changer for regional tourism, boosting GDP, generating thousands of jobs, and strengthening both leisure and religious tourism. They also anticipate that while all GCC states will benefit, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are likely to attract the largest share of visitors.
Tourism data underscores this trend: the UAE welcomed 3.3 million visitors from GCC states in 2024, representing 11 percent of all hotel guests. Saudi Arabia topped the list with 1.9 million arrivals, followed by Oman (777,000), Kuwait (381,000), Bahrain (123,000), and Qatar (93,000).
Details regarding the cost and duration of the new visa have yet to be disclosed.
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