Saudi Arabia considers issuing e-visas to Vietnamese visitors

This information was shared by Princess Haifa bint Mohammed Al-Saud, Deputy Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia, at the signing ceremony of the Action Program in the tourism sector with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, during the visit of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, October 18-20.

Along with considering issuing e-visas, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Tourism will work with domestic travel and tourism companies to research and develop product packages suitable to the tastes of Vietnamese tourists.

This is one of Saudi Arabia's steps to open the tourism market, aiming to attract more than 100 million international visitors by 2030 and make tourism the second most profitable industry, after oil.

Saudi Arabia began issuing tourist visas to international visitors in September 2019. After 4 years of opening, the country's tourism industry has recorded a surge in profits, reaching over 49 billion USD in 2022, with more than 90 million visitors (domestic and international).

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung shared that Vietnam has a project to build and develop the Halal industry until 2030, so he hopes Saudi Arabia will support him in learning about tourists' tastes, the market and building standards and regulations on Halal tourism.

"Vietnam wants to increase international cooperation to build and develop a Halal value chain suitable for tourism tastes from Muslim countries, of which Saudi Arabia is one of the key partners and markets," said Mr. Hung.

The tourism action program signed between Vietnam and Saudi Arabia will help the two countries increase information and experience sharing, human resource development and training, and seek tourism investment opportunities.

Previously, when receiving leading Saudi Arabian tourism corporations, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also agreed to study the opening of a direct flight between Vietnam and Saudi Arabia. This will support the development of tourism and import and export of goods between the two countries.

Three years ago, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia signed an air transport agreement, creating conditions for the establishment of air routes between and outside the two countries. According to Mr. Dang Ngoc Hoa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Airlines, in the near future, this airline and Saudi Airlines will launch codeshare flights, thereby moving towards opening direct flights between the two countries.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh is visiting Saudi Arabia and attending the first ASEAN-GCC Summit, at the invitation of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Saudi Arabia is Vietnam's leading economic partner in the Middle East. In 2022, the two countries' trade turnover reached 2.7 billion USD, and over 2 billion in the first 9 months of this year.