Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi said: “The Saudi Arabia government is now offering a one-year e-visa for Malaysians wishing to travel to Saudi Arabia at the beginning of this month”.

He said, earlier to the existing scheme, the Saudi government had offered a three-month (90-day) visa for travel to the kingdom.

He added “Saudi Arabia has opened their hearts and doors to us, as their policies have also been relaxed. For Malaysian tourists going to Saudi Arabia, they only have to pay 300 Saudi Riyals (RM335.68) and they can enter and leave the kingdom within a one-year period.

“Saudi Arabia will also be sending officials from their tourism sector to Malaysia to learn our way of promoting tourism,” he told reporters after opening ‘The Great Steppe: History and Culture’ exhibition here today.

Mohamaddin said it was timely done to attract more tourists to the country with the Visit Malaysia Year 2020 campaign just around the corner. He said the month-long exhibition which showcased various artefacts from Kazakhstan, including the Golden Man, is expected to attract 50,000 visitors.

 The exhibition was held in conjunction with the Asian National Museum Association (ANMA) conference to be held from Oct 29 to 30. 

Also present was his deputy, Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik.