Tourism

Airline Tickets Turn to Visas in Saudi Arabia


Saudia, the Saudi Arabia national airline, launches “Your Ticket Your Visa” campaign. Its aim is to facilitate access to Saudi Arabia for travelers. The campaign includes a digital integration system that links transit visas to airline tickets.

Saudia in collaboration with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Hajj and Umrah is offering a new campaign.

“It offers customers even easier access to the Kingdom through a digital integration system that links transit visas to airline tickets,” the press release said.

From all international airports in the country, visitors will be able to stay in the Kingdom for up to 96 hours. During this time, they will be able to travel, visit the country and perform Umrah.

“The launch of this innovative and seamless stopover visa is the first of its kind in the aviation industry and is an important step in our digital transformation program,” said Captain Ibrahim Koshy, CEO of Saudia.

“It demonstrates Saudia’s commitment to supporting the Kingdom’s strategic goal of reaching 100 million visits by 2030,” he added.

Saudi Arabia’s tourism spending surged 93 percent in 2022 to hit $49 billion, as the Kingdom continues to diversify its economy as part of Vision 2030.

“The direct contribution of the sector in the gross domestic product amounted to 3.2 percent of the total target of 10 percent by 2030,” stated the Minister of Tourism Ahmed bin Aqil Al-Khatib.

Moreover, he noted that the number of jobs in 2022 reached 880,000, reflecting an increase of 15 percent when compared to the previous year. “The percentage of Saudi women in the tourism sector also increased to reach 44 percent of the total workers in the sector,” Al-Khatib added. 

During 2022, the Ministry of Tourism implemented as many as 11 advertising campaigns to introduce and market tourism in the Kingdom, reaching 35 countries. The latest campaign linking visas and airline tickets is expected to further boost the local tourism industry.



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