Omani tourism sector to grow by 5.2% over next 10 years

The Government of Oman is working on a new strategy to boost the contribution of the tourism sector beyond its current level of being worth around 7% of the Sultanate's GDP.

Oman has also been raising awareness of its tourism-related developments at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM), with exhibitors including the Oman Ministry of Tourism, Oman Airways and for the first time, Muriya Tourism Development.

Developing new hotels and resorts and bringing them to market is one of Oman's top priorities, as demonstrated by figures from global research and analytics company Aranca, which revealed that as of July 2013, Oman had the largest growth in its active hotel development pipeline of all the Arabian Gulf and neighbouring countries, up 59.9% on July 2012, with 4,577 rooms.

Mark Walsh, Portfolio Director for ATM organiser Reed Travel Exhibitions explaines "Oman is a country with a fine-tuned vision for its tourism industry and is forging ahead with plans to build a premium destination targeted at discerning travellers.

"With this in mind, the Sultanate is investing in a wide-range of top-quality hotels and resorts, supported by world-class infrastructure developments spanning aviation, road, rail and maritime."

Oman Ministry of Tourism Under Secretary Maitha al Mahrouqiyah expects tourism to reach a "much higher figure" of GDP than its 6.6% level of 2012.

A World Economic Forum (WEF) report claims Oman's tourism industry was worth an estimated $2.11 billion in 2012 and anticipates average growth of 5.2% between 2013 and 2022.

As for future growth, Walsh adds "predicted growth of the tourism sector could be modest given the raft of projects pipelined and the rapid development of Oman's aviation sector, with national carrier Oman Air expanding its route network plus regional operators such as Air Arabia, flydubai and Qatar Airways adding more flights to Muscat and Salalah."

Targetitng international visitors is high on the agenda for Oman Air, which plans to go double-daily on its Muscat-London route and branch out into other medium- and long-haul markets when new A330 and B787 aircraft are delivered, taking its total fleet size to 50 by 2017. To cater for a surge in travellers visiting the Sultanate, a new $1.8 billion passenger terminal is under construction at Muscat International Airport, boosting its capacity from six to 12 million passengers annually.

For more information go to www.tourismoman.com.au

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