Riyadh - Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry introduced an electronic visa service earlier this week for passengers who are stopping over in the country.
The transit visa for stop-over allows travellers in transit to enter the kingdom to perform Umrah, visit the Prophet's Mosque, and attend tourism events.
The visa is free of charge and issued immediately with the traveller's plane tickets.
It allows for a four-day stay in the kingdom and has a three-month validity period, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Ministry said that the new service is available as of Monday on the electronic platforms of Saudia Airlines and Flynas, and passengers can apply on the platforms to receive the digital visas in their email.
The kingdom has in recent years started to promote leisure travel as part of a strategy aimed at diversifying the economy away from oil, spearheaded by de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Reuters reported.
Visits were up 130% in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the last quarter of 2019, Saudi Tourism Authority CEO Fahd Hamidaddin told the news outlet.
"I think our record-high domestic travel was last year. And on general recovery of total travel, we outperformed the globe,we outperformed the region in terms of recovery - we reached 72%of pre-pandemic levels," he said.