RIYADH — The Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) will make a landmark announcement on Friday about the launch of the new tourism strategy with opening up of the Kingdom's horizons to tourists from all over the world. Details of the strategy will be unveiled in a press conference, to be held in Riyadh's Diriyah, in the presence of Ahmed Al-Khatib, chairman of SCTH. The commission said in a statement that the strategy reflects the keenness of the wise leadership on achieving the Kingdom's Vision 2030, with upgrading the tourism sector, which is a key driver in the economic diversification, and this will be keeping pace with the new development requirements that the Kingdom aspires to achieve. The Council of Ministers had recently approved restructuring of visa system for Haj and Umrah pilgrims as well as for visitors and transit passengers. This is through unifying the visa fee for issuing visa for each person at a rate of SR300. The Cabinet also cancelled fee for repeating Umrah pilgrimage. This revoked the earlier rule to the effect that an Umrah pilgrim had to pay SR 2,000 in case of repeating the pilgrimage during a period of three years.
