For the first time, Saudi Arabia is officially opening its doors to tourists interested in visiting the kingdom for more than religious reasons. The ultraconservative Middle Eastern kingdom announced a new e-visa program on Friday that will allow people from 49 countries to enter the country for tourism, for stays as long as three months.

The visa program is an aspect of an economic reform plan introduced by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, to lower the kingdom’s dependence on oil.

“The Saudis already have experience with outsiders coming in as religious tourists, but tourism for culture, ecology, desert — that’s new and it’s part of the project for opening up,” said Bernard Haykel, a scholar at Princeton University who studies the kingdom. “It’s not going to displace oil, but it’s a dent in that direction.”

Visas were previously restricted to expatriates and business people working in the country, and for Muslims traveling to the kingdom for the Hajj, the five-day pilgrimage Muslims from around the world make to follow the Prophet Muhammad’s footsteps and for Umrah, a smaller religious trip.