Six Gulf nations are anticipating the launch of a joint tourist visa scheme by the end of 2025, making travel in the region easier by allowing free movement between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
The member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council approved the so-called “GCC Grand Tours Visa” in 2023 and have been working for some time now on the technical and legal aspects of an agreement that “serves common security and facilitates movement between the GCC countries,” according to a statement issued at the start of July 2025.
Intended to emulate the European Union’s Schengen visa, the new GCC single entry visa would mean visitors could travel in and out of each member state freely for the duration of the permit, which has not yet been confirmed but is expected to be somewhere between a month and 90 days. The visa will cater only to leisure trips, visits to family and friends, or short-term stays, meaning that work-based travel or longer excursions are excluded.
It’s a move that recognises international tourists’ desire to bundle more than one destination into single trips without having to complete and pay for multiple complex visa applications. As such, the joint visa is aimed at promoting regional tourism, inciting tourists to extend their stays and spend more money, while consolidating the Gulf’s status as a unified global destination.
Some of the Gulf nations have already been easing visa restrictions and targeting travel and tourism growth as a key part of policies to diversify their fossil-fuel driven economies. Depending on the length of visitors’ stays, Oman and Qatar, for example, propose free visa-on-arrival arrangements to citizens of around 100 countries, while the UAE’s Tourism Strategy 2031 has a goal of raising AED 450 billion through the sector, and offers visas-on-arrival to 85 nationalities, on top of its five GCC partners.
Including the development of luxury resorts in Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah, and Abu Dhabi, and adverts to encourage women to visit Saudi Arabia, efforts to promote the region’s attractions are ongoing.
They garnered a 43% increase in international tourist arrivals to the GCC nations between 2019 and 2023, according to figures from the group’s Statistical Centre. Arrivals hit 68.1 million in 2023 with revenues reaching US$110.4 billion, up over 28%. The group of nations will be hoping for a boost to intra-GCC tourism, which stood at nearly 27% in 2023.
