Gulf tourists to Australia on the rise

Australia has not taken the love affair lightly. This year alone it has implemented two major procedures designed to facilitate the Gulf traveller's experience of obtaining a visa.

"The Australian Government implemented a number of initiatives in 2006 which helped ease the peak in visa applications for nationals of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait," Senator Vanstone said.

"These include visa label-free arrangements for the nationals of five Gulf countries, an increase in the number of processing staff and contact lines for urgent cases."

Citizens of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait can now obtain visas to travel to Australia without having a label placed in their passports. This can be done on line www.immi.gov.au or through a travel agent.

"These initiatives vastly improved client service and processing times for families travelling from the Gulf this year," Vanstone added. But it only gets better.

Vanstone announced that the validity period for tourist visas and business visitor visas has been extended from one to two years for GCC nationals.

Most Nationals from the GCC issued a visa from 11 December 2006 - and valid for two years - can visit Australia as often as they like over that two-year period with just one visa.

Up to 70 per cent of these people are repeat visitors making regular family holiday trips to Australia, and the validity extension will benefit an estimated 11,000 visitors from the Gulf every year.

People wishing to make return trips within two years will now not need to reapply for their visa and we hope that will encourage people to visit Australia frequently. Travellers should check their visa validity if issued prior to 11 December 2006, as they will not be automatically extended by the announced changes.

Locally here in the Gulf, the news has been received with jubilation by those in the trade. "Year to date, January through August 2006, Australia has received 31,600 visitors from the GCC countries, a whopping increase of 16 percent cent over the same months in 2004, and a six percent increase on 2005 figures," said Andrew Oldfield, distribution development manager - GCC countries.

He said that, "a sizeable number of those visitors are repeat visitors who head Down Under every year so these visa improvements will be great news for them and their travel agents."

Senator Vanstone finished by saying, "Most importantly, we hope these changes will strengthen and nurture the ties between our nations."