Saudi Arabia expects to open borders for tourists “very soon”

Saudi Arabia will “very soon” open its borders for foreign tourists as the kingdom sets conditions to enter the country.
The kingdom on Sunday indicated that non-citizens arriving from certain countries and who were fully vaccinated against or recently recovered from COVID-19 would no longer be required to quarantine in designated government hotels. Those new measures, however, only apply to residents, government and business travelers or those visiting friends and family but not foreign tourists, according to the Saudi Tourism Authority (STA), Daily Sabah reports.
STA Chief Executive Fahd Hamidaddin told Reuters that foreign tourists’ visit to the Gulf country this year will start “very soon”.
The announcement comes after the interior ministry’s decision to lift the suspension of citizens’ travel outside the Kingdom came into effect. The kingdom, according to Hamidaddin, was still targeting 100 million annual visits by 2030, up from about 40 million a year before the pandemic.
It was also still targeting tourism to account for 10% of GDP, up from 3%, by 2030, he said, the Turkish news outlet reports.