The Omani tourism policy

Up until a few years back, there were strict restrictions on who gets to come into the country and who gets their work visa in the Sultanate of Oman. You would need a sponsor for your visit/work/vacation visa(s). Tourism wasn't even an industry back then because of the low amount of tourists that would visit the country and the beauricratic policies that both the governmental and private organizations took into looking at such issues.

There were only a handful of 5 star hotels in the Muscat capital area, and even then they were far too expensive to have a long stay in. Still then, there were no actual local companies that would promote the country outside Oman especially regionally and internationally. There were hardly any companies in the Sultanate who you could call professional tour operators that would tour the tourist sights all over the country.

The only amount of money that was spent to keep this little sector running back from the government was the financing to recreate the structures of the castles, forts, and relegious grounds that offered a high heritigal and relegious values to the visitor of Oman.

When the oil fields in Oman started to show signs of drought, the government embarked on a new era. That was to open a Ministry of Tourism and allocate to it an annual budget of 50 million Omani Rials for both; the sixth and seventh five-year plan.

The ministry started to allocate automatically to it all the sights that are relevant from a tourist 'perspective' forts, castles, relegious grounds, hotels, hotel night-clubs, and the such.

Thus also embarking on a wide scale but narrow field - or niche - of customers that it would target to attract. This means that the Sultanate was looking to attract middle and upper-class tourism to it's land. But there are discrepencies between the public eyes that this might lead to Oman being much like it's neighbor Dubai; which the government assures it won't, but nonetheless, it still lurks within the community.

There have been several projects of investment in the tourism industry since then like the Shangra-La Bandar Jassa Hotels & Resort, the Blue City located near Al Sawadi, and now a new fishing and ocean lining systems company to open up in Al-Duqm bya several Chinese and Omani investors, not to mention the Wave that includes several investors from the UAE and Oman.

Oman may be all set to start it's right foot into the tourism venture league. But this arises many questions such as; why the sudden opening to the tourism sector when the country isn't that aquainted with tourists in high quantities (almost every 10-15 days about 2000 - 3500 tourists arrive on an ocean liner)? What about the visa norms, why have they still not been relaxed? Why is the government still focussing on middle and upper-class tourists when they know that these individuals will pay cheeply - once they get here - for all their supplies? Is the community in Oman ready to face such an open-market policy now that Oman is now in negotiations with almost every main international airports to make Seeb International Airport and Salalah International Airport a main hub in the Arabian Peninsula?

Links:

- Shangri La, Oman
- The Blue City, Al-Sawadi
- The Wave, Muscat