The new, and already much-anticipated, GCC unified visa is set to grant its holders seamless entry and exit to each of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)’s six nations with just one easy to follow visa application process.
Although often described as a GCC tourist visa, the GCC unified visa has also been designed to allow simplified travel to Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for business travellers and those seeking to invest in the region.
Exactly how the unified tourist visa for GCC nations will help foster better business relations and investment becomes obvious when you delve into the details of the visa scheme that have been announced.
As we will discuss below, not only does the new GCC visa streamline the application process for those seeking visas to the region, but it also reduces the cost of doing business in the region thanks to its founding ethos of freedom of travel within the GCC bloc.
Improved Business Access to GCC Nations
Having a unified GCC tourist visa approved can help your business in several ways. To begin with, it’s important to note that applications for this ‘tourist’ visa are open to business travellers too, as well as those undergoing umrah or those wishing to visit friends and family in the region.
This means those considering doing business in the region in order to capitalise on the impressive growth the GCC’s economies have seen in recent years can do so without having to jump through a series of complex hurdles as can be the case elsewhere in the world.
Instead, business travellers and investors simply need to complete the online application form, submit the relevant documentation (such as a scan of a passport), and pay the single fee. It means no personal visits to an embassy or diplomatic mission, and no need to increase your business expenses through having to pay for multiple visas to visit multiple GCC nations on the same business trip.
Unexpected Business Benefits of the GCC Unified Visa
The creation of the GCC unified visa is generating direct and indirect benefits for businesses looking to trade with GCC nations wherever they may be located on the globe. Having already outlined the most immediate direct benefits above, we now take a look at an unexpected business benefit of the GCC unified visa coming into fruition – vastly improved labour movement.
The existence of a single visa for all six GCC nations doesn’t just benefit employers and potential employers. It is also a great benefit to those they employ. With free movement across the GCC, skilled and talented workers are able to much more easily relocate for new projects or job prospects, in turn offering much greater dexterity to the GCC’s labour market.
Employees can even move between GCC nations to live and work temporarily in a neighbour on a short-term project, before returning to their place of residence without having to complete any paperwork, pay any fees, or await for the visa to be approved. This massively enhances the efficiency of GCC nations in businesses of all kinds.
In addition, having a unified GCC tourist visa approved will help businesses and investors retain staff they have spent money employing and training up. This is due to the fact the GCC tourist visa requirements increase staff retention in GCC states, because there is no longer a concern about losing privileges when travelling, or worries over the ease of going to see family and friends.
All these factors help to reduce costs for businesses, while fostering a climate of innovation and a shared desire to succeed across the workforce.
Greater Cooperation between the GCC is Good for Business
The free passage of people for business and pleasure with a single visa must by definition require close cooperation between the six member states of the GCC if it is to function correctly as a trans-government policy.
This greater cooperation will also be a positive for businesses, whether large or small, seeking to trade within the GCC. For large multinational companies, increased cooperation means a movement to a harmonisation of policy, which reduces company costs further through only needing to produce a product to one set standard.
In addition, it provides a more stable overall economic climate for investing further funds because it hints at reduced tensions and a long-term outlook which seeks to invite further investment as the bloc seeks to continue its economic diversification.
Nor is it just large multinationals which can take advantage of these facts. Even small businesses will find closer cooperation between GCC nations a benefit to them, since it again makes it simpler to trade among each of the unified tourist visa GCC countries.
Tourist-orientated Business Predicted to Soar with the GCC Unified Visa
If predictions are correct, there has rarely been a better time to invest in tourist-orientated businesses in the GCC. For the first time, those who don’t have the benefit of GCC nationality and passports are able to tour the region unhindered, allowing them to experience the incredible wealth of historical and cultural treasures hidden in plain sight until now.
To prove it, you only need to look at publicly available facts and figures. Nations within the GCC including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar have already invested billions of dollars into creating world-class destinations offering the very best in hotels, major new attractions, and events such as Formula 1 Grand Prix races in Saudi Arabia to attract new and different tourists to the region.
The UAE’s theme parks and water parks are already a huge hit with families from across the globe, while the opening of attractions including the Louvre Abu Dhabi have shone a spotlight on the incredible array of cultural attractions that await now there is free movement within the bloc thanks to the creation of the GCC unified visa.
As well as increasing international tourist arrivals as a result of the simplified visa process, there is now also the chance to boost domestic tourism for those with GCC residency but not nationality.
All this means that destination management companies, tour operators, hotel chains and airlines, down to taxi firms and restaurants, are sitting on an incredible chance to soak up new demand for tours across the region.
Should you need further convincing of the great job the GCC tourist visa will do for business and investment, just remember that the region’s tourism authorities are forecasting an increase in investor numbers from anywhere from 20% to 25% in the coming years, which equates to multiple extra billions of dollars entering the GCC’s economy.
The Take Home Message for Businesses and Investors of the GCC Unified Visa
If the approval of the GCC tourist visa says one thing to businesses and investors around the world, it is this: the GCC is keen to attract investment. Good business people should need little more invitation.
Having a unified tourist visa for GCC countries not only benefits tourists and business travellers themselves through the much easier means of traversing the GCC region. It also offers a whole host of new opportunities to businesses and investors through reduced costs, better inter-country cooperation, improved worker mobility around the region, and an increased focus on attracting different sorts of tourists to the region’s many attractions.
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