The layover offer was announced at the end of January, and will allow travellers to stay in the country for up to 96 hours when flying with either Saudia or Flyna airlines. Passengers will also be entitled to a free overnight hotel stay if flying with Saudia.

Saudia is one of the country’s international airlines, flying to destinations including London, Frankfurt, New York and Singapore, as well as countries throughout Asia and the Middle East. Flyna on the other hand, has routes within MENA and South Asia, including to Cairo, Dubai and Delhi. In launching the new visa, Saudi Arabia hopes to encourage more international visitors and has therefore opened it up to more countries than their normal visitor’s visa, which certain nationalities are unable to apply for. In addition, they have created bespoke 24, 48, 72 and 96-hour itineraries for visitors taking advantage of the scheme who will get to see the best local attractions.

To make use of the scheme, all travellers will have access to the visa and layover option when booking a flight with the two airlines online. Any airport in Saudi Arabia can be used as the layover point to claim the offer, and after booking passengers will have three months to make use of the visa. The visa will allow visitors to stay in the Kingdom for a maximum of four days,

The launch of such a visa is a brand-new incentive in the aviation industry, although other countries offer similar visa-free schemes, such as Singapore, which provides city tours for passengers with long layovers. Saudi Arabia is one of the most up and coming destinations for 2023, fuelled by the launch of its tourism campaign Experience AlUla in early 2022. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia only launched their first ever tourist visa in 2019, but in 2022 welcomed over 20 million visitors from around the world. At the start of 2022, four out of ten of the busiest international flight routes stopped in Saudi Arabia and the destination is seeing more and more interest; it was recently selected as one of the desirable destinations of the year by Wanderlust. The country recently also announced ambitious plans to attract at least 100 million visitors by 2030.

Saudi Arabia has been shrouded in controversy due to its record of human rights abuses. The rate of executions carried out by Saudi Arabia has almost doubled under the rule of Mohammed bin Salman; the past six years are among the bloodiest in this country´s modern history and many travellers continue to boycott travel to the country for this reason