Saudi Arabia widens e-visa so tourists can also perform Umrah

Saudi Arabia widened its electronic visa system around the start of 2023, so that eligible visitors could enter the kingdom on a tourist visa and also perform Umrah, the pilgrimage to Mecca that can be made at any time of year.

The change built on the tourist e-visa launched in 2019, when the kingdom began opening to leisure travellers for the first time. That move was part of Vision 2030, the national plan to diversify the economy away from oil. Until then, travel to Saudi Arabia was largely limited to pilgrims, business visitors and foreign workers.

Linking the tourist visa with Umrah mattered because religious travel is one of the country's biggest sources of visitors. It let travellers combine a pilgrimage with wider visits to the kingdom, and it simplified applications by using a single online process rather than separate arrangements through licensed pilgrimage agents.

The step also fitted the government's goal of attracting tens of millions of religious and leisure visitors a year. Later additions of eligible countries to the e-visa list, including the latest one, continue that expansion.