Project Details


AI Repository Project

WSIS Prizes Contest 2020 Champion

Visit Saudi and eVisa


Description

Tourism gives people opportunity to live and work where you want, the opportunity to empower communities, to promote sustainable growth. More importantly, it allows people to be proud of their roots, their heritage and their country. This can only have a positive impact on society and benefit all.
Saudi Arabia has opened its doors to the world with its new tourist eVisa. Through the fast and easy-to-use online portal offering global connectivity, international visitors now can get an online tourist visa within 5 to 7 minutes only. Saudi Arabia is developing our tourism offering sustainably, protecting our rural communities.

Saudi Arabia is developing our tourism offering sustainably, protecting our rural communities; it is an important opportunity for Saudi Arabia to learn from the global community to make our growth sustainable.
The key objectives behind of the tourism eVisa initiative are to support and facilitate tourism growth as well as process improvement by making visitor visa issuing and entry process faster, simpler and more efficient; The auto-grant facility enables the system to automatically grant visas \ travel authorisations to individuals who meet the required criteria without the need for manual handling of the application and paperless government.

Opening Saudi Arabia to tourism is a key milestone in the implementation of Vision 2030, which seeks to diversify the country's economy and reduce its dependence on oil.

The country is preparing to welcome tourists from around the globe by investing in new international events, such as concerts, sporting activities, etc. as well as constructing new attractions, like the mega-theme park near Riyadh, that is aiming to draw in crowds of up to 1.5 million visitors a year. The tourist visa allows for a stay in of up to 3 months per entry, with visitors able to spend up to 90 days a year in Saudi Arabia. The visa is valid for one year, with multiple entries.

Project website

https://visa.visitsaudi.com/


Images

Action lines related to this project
  • AL C11. International and regional cooperation 2020
Sustainable development goals related to this project
  • Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth
  • Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
  • Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals

Coverage
  • International

Status

Completed

Start date

27 September 2019

End date

2022


Target beneficiary group(s)
  • Youth
  • Older persons
  • Women
  • Indigenous and nomadic peoples
  • People with disabilities
  • The unemployed
  • The poor
  • Remote and rural communities
  • Hospitality, Travel and Tourism Sectors ,

Replicability

Saudi Tourism eVisa is a leading innovative ICT-oriented project based on global connectivity and offers a perfect model to be replicated in other sectors of the economy as well as the region with long-term success prospects. The reproduction of the project ideas, practices and technologies will benefit and positively impact other key pillars of the Saudi Vision 3030 such as National Character Enrichment Program, National Transformation Program, Strategic Partnership Program and Human Capital Development Program in addition to enabling knowledge transfer and cooperation in other parts of the region for a similar activity.


Sustainability

Saudi Tourism eVisa is a leading innovative ICT-oriented project based on global connectivity and offers a perfect model to be replicated in other sectors of the economy as well as the region with long-term success prospects. The reproduction of the project ideas, practices and technologies will benefit and positively impact other key pillars of the Saudi Vision 3030 such as National Character Enrichment Program, National Transformation Program, Strategic Partnership Program and Human Capital Development Program in addition to enabling knowledge transfer and cooperation in other parts of the region for a similar activity.


WSIS values promotion

Saudi Tourism is going through a historic transformation with a journey into the future and eVisa will have a beneficial impact on both society and economy (e.g. increasing access to information, creating job opportunities, increasing income for local communities, reducing migration of skilled tourism professionals, enhance efficiency, effectiveness and transparency) One of the WSIS Values is build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Tourism gives people opportunity. The opportunity to live and work where you want, the opportunity to empower communities, to promote sustainable growth. More importantly, it allows people to be proud of their roots, their heritage and their country for all people equally. This can only have a positive impact on society and benefit all. The digital visa infrastructure is designed to boost capacity of tourism while accelerating and improving processes through innovation, knowledge, technology and creativity. Growth in tourism will create important opportunities to diversify the local economy thus promoting shared prosperity. It will also help in developing remote areas because of their high cultural, natural and heritage values By boosting connectivity and awareness, it will promote sustainable and inclusive tourism through a network of global and regional partnerships EVisa Initiative Promoted sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.Tourism contributes an estimated 10 percent to global GDP (World Travel and Tourism Council -WTTC) For the past eight years, the industry has been expanding at a rate that exceeds the global average. • Last year the tourism sector grew by 3.9 percent, compared to 3.2 percent for the global economy • By 2029, tourism will contribute more than $13 billion to the world economy – equivalent to 11.5 percent of GDP. Saudi Arabia expects to achieve 100 million international and domestic overnight visits a year by 2030


Entity name

Saudi Commission for Tourism & National Heritage

Entity country—type

Saudi Arabia Government

Entity website

https://scth.gov.sa

Partners

- The name(s) and contact details of the partner entity/entities involved. Transformation to an information society cannot be achieved without comprehensive collaboration and concerted efforts to realize the set objectives. Therefore, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) established the e-Government Program in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance and the Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC). With the objective to provide world-class user experience through seamless integration, Saudi Tourism eVisa collaborated with multiple government organisations and private entities namely (Ministry of Foreign Affairs - MOFA, Council of Cooperative Health Insurance – CCHI, National Information Centre – NIC) and (Google Maps and online highly secured payment solution HyperPay). Technology plays a critical role in our ambition - we are building agility into policy-making to enable innovation and embrace emerging technologies. Collaborative public private partnerships are central to building long-term solutions in world that is being continually transformed by technology. Collaborative public private partnerships are central to building long-term solutions in world that is being continually transformed by technology. Saudi Arabia is open, and ready and willing to learn from our partners Partnership: (Government Sectors) • Ministry of Foreign Affairs - MOFA, SAlamoud@mofa.gov.sa • Council of Cooperative Health Insurance – CCHI, aaldammas@cchi.gov.sa • National Information Centre – NIC agoas@nic.gov.sa