The UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism and the Chairman of the Emirates Tourism Council, Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, stated that the pilot phase of the unified tourist visa will be launched by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in the fourth quarter of this year.
He stated that the unified GCC tourist visa, which is equivalent to the Schengen-style visa, giving tourists the option to explore all six GCC countries, is a “strategic step towards deeper regional integration and will enhance the Gulf’s collective appeal as a single tourism destination.”
Speaking to the UAE news agency Wam, he emphasized that the full implementation of the visa, also referred to as the GCC Grand Tourist Visa, will be introduced in another phase.
However, the minister did not reveal the exact date when the single GCC visa was launched.
In an interview with Khaleej Times on June 16, 2025, Al Marri stated that the GCC single tourist visa has been approved and it would be implemented “soon”.
Al Marri stated in the interview during the UAE Hospitality Summer Camp sidelines that “The single (GCC) tourist visa has been approved and is now waiting to be implemented, hopefully, soon. Now, it is with the Ministry of Interior and the relevant stakeholders, and they should look into it.”
GCC Grand Tourist Visa will enable foreign tourists to explore the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait on one visa. The duration and the price of the visa are still not announced.
The executives of the travel and tourism industry feel that this visa will be a game-changer for the regional tourism sector and the economy as a whole, generating thousands of employment opportunities and a massive increase in GDP. It will increase religious and “bleisure” tourism in the area.
According to executives, every GCC nation will be a beneficiary of this new visa, yet the UAE and Saudi Arabia will have the highest number of tourists.
Al Marri reported that in 2024, the total hotel visitor count in the UAE will be 3.3 million visitors, of which 11 per cent are GCC citizens.
The top three destinations in terms of visitors were Saudi Arabia with 1.9 million visitors, Oman with 777,000 visitors, and Kuwait with 3,81,000 visitors, Bahrain with 12,3000 visitors, and Qatar with 93,000 visitors.
In a statement to Wam, the UAE minister said that by mid-September 2025, the number of commercial licenses in the tourism, hospitality, aviation, air transport, aviation technologies, and digital tourism solutions in the UAE had reached 39,546, or increased 275 percent since mid-September 2020.
