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Saudi Arabia Announces New Instant E-Visa Options For Visitors

A general view of the Saudi capital Riyadh. (AP)
A general view of the Saudi capital Riyadh. (AP)
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Saudi Arabia Announces New Instant E-Visa Options For Visitors

A general view of the Saudi capital Riyadh. (AP)
A general view of the Saudi capital Riyadh. (AP)

Saudi Arabia announced new instant e-visa options to facilitate UK, US, and Schengen visas holders, as well as permanent residents of UK, US, and any EU country to obtain tourist e-visas to the Kingdom through www.mofa.gov.sa.

The Kingdom has previously extended regulation to provide visas on arrival to the six categories.

The Saudi Tourism Authority is accelerating efforts to make it easier for visitors from across the world to travel to Saudi Arabia, state news agency SPA reproted.

Through digitization, Saudi Arabia is increasing accessibility and connectivity, providing simplified entry routes to visitors, focused on enabling all travelers to enjoy our natural and cultural diversity.

The new instant e-visa is among several initiatives that the Kingdom has launched over the past year to improve the visitor experience.

In 2022, the Saudi Tourism Authority launched the Nusuk platform in collaboration with the Pilgrim Experience Program.

Nusuk, Saudi’s first ever official integrated digital platform, provides pilgrims and visitors an easy-to-use planning gateway for their journeys to Makkah, Madinah, and beyond.

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Customers at this Starbucks Can Sip Coffee and Observe a Quiet North Korean Village

Visitors at a newly opened Starbucks store as North Korea’s Kaephung county is seen in the background at the observatory of the Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Visitors at a newly opened Starbucks store as North Korea’s Kaephung county is seen in the background at the observatory of the Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
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Customers at this Starbucks Can Sip Coffee and Observe a Quiet North Korean Village

Visitors at a newly opened Starbucks store as North Korea’s Kaephung county is seen in the background at the observatory of the Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Visitors at a newly opened Starbucks store as North Korea’s Kaephung county is seen in the background at the observatory of the Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Coffee drinkers can sip their beverages and view a quiet North Korean mountain village from a new Starbucks at a South Korean border observatory.
Customers have to pass a military checkpoint before entering the observatory at Aegibong Peace Ecopark, which is less than a mile from North Korean territory and overlooks North Korea’s Songaksan mountain and a nearby village in Kaephung county, The Associated Press said.
The tables and windows face North Korea at the Starbucks, where about 40 people, a few of them foreigners, came to the opening Friday.
The South Korean city of Gimpo said hosting Starbucks was part of efforts to develop its border facilities as a tourist destination and said the shop symbolizes “robust security on the Korean Peninsula through the presence of this iconic capitalist brand.”
The observatory is the key facility at Aegibong park, which was built on a hill that was a fierce battle site during the 1950-53 Korean War. The park also has gardens, exhibition and conference halls and a war memorial dedicated to fallen marines.
Gimpo and other South Korean border cities like Paju have been trying to develop their border sites as tourist assets, even as tensions grow between the war-divided Koreas.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been trying to raise pressure on South Korea and threatening to attack his rival with nuclear weapons if provoked. North Korea has also engaged in psychological and electronic warfare against South Korea, such as flying trash-laden balloons into the South and disrupting GPS signals from border areas near the South’s biggest airport.
Kaephung county is believed to be one of the possible sites from where North Korea has launched thousands of balloons over several months.
South Korea’s military said Friday that the North flew dozens more balloons overnight and that some trash and leaflets landed around the capital Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province.