Qatar will now allow nationals from 80 countries to enter without a visa, the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) announced Wednesday.
“With this decision, Qatar hopes to bring fresh diversity to the tourism sector,” Hassan al-Ibrahimi, the QTA’s chief development officer, said at a news conference in Doha.
“Countries that will now benefit from visa-free travel were selected according to certain criteria,” Ibrahimi added, noting that additional countries would be added to the list.
According to Mohamed Rashid al-Mazroui, passport director at Doha’s Hamad International Airport, citizens of exempted countries will no longer have to pay entrance fees when entering Qatar.
Read: Egypt to end visa-free entry for Qataris
Mazroui said countries given visa-free status had been selected on the basis of “security and economic assessments” conducted by the Interior Ministry.
Under the new regulations, citizens of the 80 selected countries – which include Turkey, Germany, Greece and Belgium – will no longer be required to obtain prior entry visas.