JEDDAH, 17 October — Switzerland’s visa regulations remain unchanged, according to Swiss Consul General Urs Badertscher.
"We haven’t changed our visa rules in the post 9-11 situation. They are the same as existed before the terrorist attacks on the United States," he said during a Switzerland Tourism presentation yesterday.
He said that Saudi nationals do not need a Swiss visa provided they possess a multiple Schengen visa.
Michel Feria, Zurich-based deputy managing director of Switzerland Tourism who gave the presentation, said Geneva and Zurich airports had Arabic desks to assist visitors from the Middle East region.
Feria, who was accompanied by Jamal Kleibo, Dubai-based representative of Switzerland Tourism in the GCC countries, said the newly named Swiss (Swiss International Air Lines) had lost 20 percent of its business after 9/11. "The loss was mostly from North America, but it was made up by gains from the Kingdom, the rest of the Gulf, China and certain other countries."
Meanwhile, Switzerland Tourism announced the official opening of its Gulf office at the Dubai headquarters of Swiss International Air Lines.
In 2001 Switzerland received 217,000 Gulf visitors, an increase of 15 percent over the year before. "By the year’s end, we expect 300,000 overnight visitors from the Gulf, and in 2003 we expect this number to increase further thanks to the opening of our office in the Gulf," Feria added.
Manuel Staerkle, Swiss area manager for the Western Province, said Custodian of the Two Holy Mosque King Fahd’s long vacation in Geneva in May-August had generated a lot of traffic from the Kingdom to Switzerland.
The airline, which operates weekly two flights from Jeddah, is looking forward to its third flight due to growing demand. It also has three other flights a week from Riyadh.
