Saudi Arabia to issue tourist visas

Saudi Arabia is ready to start issuing tourism visas to foreigners in an attempt to market the kingdom as a holiday destination. According to a report in The Guardian, visas are currently only issued for work, pilgrimages and other “approved” visits, though the new documents for tourists will be available “within a few weeks”. The newspaper reports that there are plans to build some 50,000 new hotel rooms and a college dedicated to hotel management is already in the process of being built. The plan could create as many as two million extra jobs by 2020. However, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is currently advising against all trips to Saudi Arabia, and potential visitors may want to know that the country’s supreme commission for tourism has already listed those who will not be welcome: Jews, those with Israeli stamps in their passports, those who do not abide by Saudi traditions and those under the influence of alcohol. The Guardian puts it more eloquently: “Club 18-30 devotees should think twice before stripping off on the beach or canoodling under the palm trees. There is no red wine to slake the throats of lobster-coloured visitors and those with a taste for wacky baccy risk getting their heads chopped off.” Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad