Abu Dhabi rolled out a free visa pilot scheme for Indian travellers after identifying rising travel costs emerging as the biggest obstacle facing Indian households looking to visit the emirate, a senior tourism official said at Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2026.
Abdulla Yousuf, director of international operations at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), said the decision followed direct feedback from Indian trade partners during a senior-level visit to Abu Dhabi in May.
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Yousuf said the visit was organised to show the world that “business is as usual” in Abu Dhabi and to understand what was holding Indian travellers back. Partners identified expensive airfares and a depreciating Indian rupee as the key deterrents, pushing up the overall cost of any travel package regardless of the destination.
“For Indians, their biggest challenge to travel out of India itself is airfares are expensive. The Indian rupee is depreciating, so without doing anything, the cost of basically any package to any part of the world is already more than the previous year,” Yousuf said during a media briefing at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2026.
On August 10, 2026, DCT Abu Dhabi said Indian passport holders travelling from India can get their UAE entry visa free of charge when booking an Abu Dhabi holiday of at least three nights under a new tourism initiative. The pilot programme will run from August 1 to October 31, 2026, and will initially cover up to 20,000 visas.
Abdulla Yousuf said DCT Abu Dhabi asked partners what single change would make the most difference to an Indian household’s travel decision, and they pointed to the visa fee.
“We took that comment very seriously. We worked on it with the leadership as well, and we wanted to pilot it.”
Strong initial response
Yousuf elaborated that it was still too early to assess performance in detail, but early signs were encouraging.
“A lot of booking took place already for the days to come,” he said.
Travellers using the scheme must stay in Abu Dhabi for a minimum of three nights before the end of October, and Yousuf said some early bookings reflected interest in timing trips around Diwali, with flexibility to extend stays to cover the festival.
He said other Indian travel partners have already made enquiries about joining the scheme, but DCT Abu Dhabi wants to complete the pilot first.
“If it proves the concept itself, we are more than happy to expand it to more partners,” he said, adding that partners were deliberately chosen from B2C channels so that consumers would become aware of the offer directly.
India top market
Yousuf said India remains Abu Dhabi’s top international source market, alongside China and Russia, all of which have supported the emirate’s recovery since the onset of regional conflict. Indian arrivals are currently down 10 per cent year-on-year, a dip he attributed to the early days of the conflict, but said the market was “back on track” and expected to exceed last year’s full-year numbers within months.
He also highlighted that many Indian travellers holding a valid US, UK or European visa already qualify for visa-on-arrival in the UAE without realising it, and that DCT Abu Dhabi plans to improve communication to close this awareness gap.
“Let’s not forget we are in 2026 – the reasons for those types of restrictions don’t really exist anymore,” he said, citing advances in technology and closer cooperation with security stakeholders.
Source: Khaleej Times