RIYADH — Saudi Arabia is putting on 240 flights a week and
easing overland travel to attract tens of thousands of football fans attending
the World Cup in neighboring
Qatar, the kingdom’s tourism minister told AFP on
Wednesday.
اضافة اعلان
The efforts are
intended to jumpstart the nascent tourism sector in the once closed-off
kingdom, which only began issuing tourist visas in September 2019 — just months
before the coronavirus pandemic decimated the industry globally.
With prices high and accommodation options limited
in Doha, Qatar’s Gulf neighbors are expected to soak up an overflow of fans,
organizing more than 160 daily shuttle flights between them and relaxing visa
requirements.
Conservative
Saudi Arabia, where alcohol is illegal,
has offered multi-entry 60-day visas to holders of the World Cup’s Hayya pass,
the compulsory permit available to ticket-holders.
Weekly flights from Saudi to Qatar will soar to 240
during the month-long tournament, up from six normally, tourism minister Ahmed
Al-Khateeb said on the sidelines of an investor forum in Riyadh.
For overland travelers, officials have upgraded
roads from Riyadh and cities in eastern Saudi Arabia — which are closer to
Qatar — to the border, Khateeb said.
They have also expanded petrol stations, internet
connectivity, and access to first aid and other medical services along the
route, he said.
A newly launched 10-lane border crossing “doesn’t
take you more than 10 minutes” to pass through, he added.
Facilitating cross-border travel could give
ticket-holders a Saudi alternative to lodging in Doha, where more than one
million fans are expected.
“I think we are ready when it comes to
transportation, mobility, airlines, airports, borders, healthcare,
telecommunications. We’re ready and excited,” Khateeb said.
“We can’t wait for the World Cup to start and we
can’t wait to welcome our guests from all over the world.”
He added: “We are working with the (destination
management companies) and the tour companies in Europe and Latin America and
Asia, and we are expecting tens of thousands of packages to be sold.”
Saudi Arabia has raised eyebrows with its goal of
attracting 30 million foreign tourists annually by 2030, an element of Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform agenda intended to diversify
the oil-dependent economy and open up to the world.
One high-profile feature of the tourism push is so-called
giga-projects spearheaded by Prince Mohammed, including the $500 billion
futuristic megacity known as NEOM, a budding arts hub amongst ancient Nabatean
tombs in Al-Ula, and the Red Sea Project, a Maldives-style resort destination.
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