RIYADH/DOHA: Saudi Arabia is putting on 240 flights a week and easing overland travel to attract tens of thousands of football fans attending the World Cup in neighboring Qatar, the kingdom's tourism minister told AFP on Wednesday. The efforts are intended to jumpstart the nascent tourism sector in the once closed-off kingdom, which only began issuing tourist visas in Sept 2019 - just months before the coronavirus pandemic decimated the industry globally.

With prices high and accommodation options limited in Doha, Qatar's Gulf neighbors are expected to soak up an overflow of fans, organizing more than 160 daily shuttle flights between them and relaxing visa requirements. Conservative Saudi Arabia has offered multi-entry 60-day visas to holders of the World Cup's Hayya pass, the compulsory permit available to ticketholders.

Weekly flights from Saudi to Qatar will soar to 240 during the month-long tournament, up from six normally, tourism minister Ahmed Al Khateeb said on the sidelines of an investor forum in Riyadh. For overland travelers, officials have upgraded roads from Riyadh and cities in eastern Saudi Arabia - which are closer to Qatar - to the border, Khateeb said.

They have also expanded petrol stations, Internet connectivity and access to first aid and other medical services along the route, he said. A newly launched 10-lane border crossing "doesn't take you more than 10 minutes" to pass through, he added. Facilitating cross-border travel could give ticketholders a Saudi alternative to lodging in Doha, where more than one million fans are expected.

"I think we are ready when it comes to transportation, mobility, airlines, airports, borders, healthcare, telecommunications. We're ready and excited," Khateeb said. "We can't wait for the World Cup to start and we can't wait to welcome our guests from all over the world." He added: "We are working with the (destination management companies) and the tour companies in Europe and Latin America and Asia, and we are expecting tens of thousands of packages to be sold."

Saudi Arabia has raised eyebrows with its goal of attracting 30 million foreign tourists annually by 2030, an element of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 reform agenda intended to diversify the oil-dependent economy and open up to the world. The kingdom has in recent years relaxed rules barring cinemas, gender-mixed concerts and sporting extravaganzas. One high-profile feature of the tourism push is so-called giga-projects spearheaded by Prince Mohammed, including the $500 billion futuristic megacity known as NEOM, a budding arts hub amongst ancient Nabatean tombs in Al-Ula, and the Red Sea Project, a Maldives-style resort destination.

Meanwhile, Qatar is to drop pre-arrival COVID tests before the World Cup, the health ministry said on Wednesday, weeks after announcing that the million-plus incoming fans do not need vaccinations. The latest relaxation in anti-COVID measures will take effect on Nov 1, 19 days before the first World Cup on Arab territory starts on Nov 20.

The arriving fans, players, officials, staff and media are by far the biggest influx of visitors seen in gas-rich Qatar, which has a population of just 2.9 million. "Visitors are no longer required to present a negative COVID-19 PCR or Rapid Antigen Test result before travelling to Qatar," a statement said. Qatari citizens and residents will also no longer need to take a PCR or rapid antigen test within 24 hours of returning from abroad, the health ministry added.

The 29-day tournament will be the first major global sporting event with fans since the COVID pandemic erupted in Dec 2019, killing more than six million people. Last year's delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics took place largely behind closed doors, and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was held in a bio-secure bubble. Qatari organizers and football's governing body, FIFA, have said they want the event to be a sign the world is getting over the devastating pandemic.

But the health ministry has previously warned that special measures would be ordered "in the event of a worsening pandemic situation in the country", such as the emergence of a threatening new variant. Players and match officials may be forced into a secure "bio-bubble" if COVID-19 cases take off again, with the threat of expulsion from the tournament for those who breach the secure environment, the ministry said last month.

The measures announced Wednesday cover all visitors arriving from Nov 1, when Qatar will be closed to anyone without a Hayya card - the mandatory document given to players, officials, staff, media and ticketholders and their guests. Under the existing rules until Nov 1, all visitors aged over six must provide negative COVID-19 tests before taking flights to Qatar. A requirement to wear masks on public transport was scrapped this month, and masks are also not compulsory in the eight World Cup stadiums. Qatar has suffered 684 deaths from COVID-19, with 464,223 recovered patients, according to the health ministry's website. - AFP