Saudis welcome the world, to issue tourist visas in Q1 2018

RIYADH: Head of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, speaks during an interview at the commission’s headquarters in Riyadh yesterday.—AFP

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia will begin issuing tourist visas in the first quarter of 2018, its top tourism official said, a first for the kingdom as it undergoes major economic and social reforms. Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz told AFP that “all government approvals” are in place for the launch of electronic visas next year to “all nationals whose countries allow their citizens to visit” the Gulf state. “We are now just preparing the regulations-who is eligible for the visas and how to obtain them,” added the head of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, who is a son of King Salman.

Saudi projects budget deficit for fifth year running Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said yesterday it expects to post a budget deficit for the fifth year in a row in 2018, forecasting a shortfall of $52 billion due to low oil prices. Revenues are estimated to be 783 billion riyals ($208.8 billion) and spending is expected to be 978 billion riyals ($260.8 billion), the highest in the oil-rich kingdom’s history, according to official statements carried by Saudi TV.

The new budget was announced during a cabinet meeting chaired by King Salman who said the world’s top oil exporter would “continue to decrease its dependence on oil to reach just 50 percent” of total revenues. The Saudi finance ministry said the budget deficit for 2017 came in at $61.3 billion, higher than the expected $53 billion but still lower than the $82 billion shortfall in the previous year.

Actual revenues for the current fiscal year rose by a healthy 34 percent compared with 2016 to $185.6 billion due a sharp hike in both oil and non-oil revenues. The kingdom has posted a budget deficit every year since 2014 when the price of oil, which contributed about 90 percent of revenues, crashed. Riyadh has resorted to a string of austerity measures to contain spending and imposed a variety of subsidy cuts and rises in prices of services.

Opening Up

The move to open up its tourism sector is a major shift for Saudi Arabia as powerful Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman seeks to radically overhaul the country’s oil-dependent economy and shed its ultraconservative image. Apart from the millions of Muslims who travel to Saudi Arabia annually for the Hajj pilgrimage, most visitors face an arduous process and steep fees. Saudi Arabia currently grants tourist visas for a limited number of countries, but even those applications involve a range of restrictions, including requirements to travel through an accredited company and stay at designated hotels.

Prince Sultan said the cost of the new tourist visa had not yet been settled, but stressed that it would be “as low as possible, because we believe the cumulative economic impact is greater than the cash from the visa”. Saudi Arabia, despite being richly endowed with natural beauty, is notorious worldwide for its long-standing bans on the mixing of the sexes, alcohol consumption and women driving-making it an undesirable destination for many.

'Not at any price'

In recent months, it has broken with some of its most rigid rules-lifting a cinema ban, allowing genders to mix at a national celebration and announcing that women will be allowed to drive from next June. Prince Mohammed in August announced a massive tourism project to turn 50 islands and a string of sites on the Red Sea into luxury resorts. “The kingdom is a very big treasure. People know it only in the narrowest possible terms,” Prince Sultan said, describing the vast country’s mountains, beaches and hundreds of islands along the Red Sea coast. “We’re not just oil traders,” he added, an outlook in line with that of the powerful crown prince who is working to revamp perceptions of the kingdom. There will be “guidelines” for the tourism sector, however. “We do not want to lose or give up our culture and our local values,” said Prince Sultan.

The kingdom, which takes legitimacy from the guardianship of Islam’s holiest sites-as well as billions of dollars in revenues from annual Muslim pilgrimageswill not be lifting its total ban on alcohol. “We are the country of the Two Holy Mosques, the country of Islam, and this enormous advantage cannot be relinquished... for the sake of driving up tourism figures,” he said. Tourists are coming to get “the Saudi experience”, Prince Sultan said, adding: “There is a limit, as in any other country... and we do not want tourism to come at any price.” —AFP