A senior official at the Directorate General of Passports said that tourists coming to Saudi Arabia could now obtain a visa through three means.
Major Thaar bin Saadi al-Roqi, the director of the tourist visas program at the directorate, told Asharq Al-Awsat that a visa could take 3 to 6 minutes to be issued and could be retrieved via a special device upon arrival at the Saudi ports, or through tablets provided at seven ports, or through passport reception offices with payment points provided by Mada ePay service.
He also noted that the tourist data appears at the passport reception desk at the border ports and at the same time at the operators of the passport system, explaining that all Saudi ports were fully prepared to receive tourists, as they are equipped with the latest technologies and mechanisms.
Roqi said that, in addition to the three means listed above, a tourist visa could also be obtained through the website of the Tourism Authority before arriving in the Kingdom.
He pointed out that the last period has witnessed a huge number of entries by tourists, through the 13 ports in Saudi Arabia.
On Monday, the Saudi Foreign Ministry announced the arrival of about 24,000 foreign tourists to the country in just 10 days since the implementation of the tourist visa decision.
According to the National Tourism Strategy, the Kingdom aims to receive 100 million visits per year by 2030, compared to about 41 million at present.
