Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #42

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
OMAN: A DIFFERENT KIND OF DESTINATION
Exclusive Interview: Ahmed Bin Nasser Bin Hamed Al Mahrizi,
Sultanate of Oman (Official ITB Berlin Partner Country 2020)
Growth of visitor numbers to Oman has, since 2013 not
been less than 5.7% per annum. We asked Ahmed Bin
Nasser Bin Hamed Al Mahrizi, the nation’s Minister of
Tourism, to tell us more.
Ahmed Bin Nasser
Bin Hamed Al
Mahrizi
Minister of Tourism,
Sultanate of Oman
We think this kind of growth
will continue up to 2028, and
international reports confirm this.
The government is taking care
of the tourism sector, because
we want to develop five sectors,
including tourism, so as not to be
so dependent on oil revenues. With
oil prices constantly fluctuating, this
is very bad for our future. Along
with tourism, we aim to develop
agriculture, light industry, logistics,
and mining. One of our main exports
is marble, which we even export to
Europe. But we need to take care of
our culture, our identity, and thus to
avoid overtourism. The population
of Oman is small: only three-million
Omanis and a total of four-point-five
million including foreign nationals.
People are open to foreigners,
but they don’t yet understand the
tourism sector as a “business”. This
is why we have created our own
strategy up to 2040, taking care of
these aspects – specially the culture.
We also want to target adventure
tourism, with hiking, biking and
climbing, and so on. We have
mountains, desert and beautiful
seas for diving. MICE is another
sector we want to grow. We intend
to limit the number of tourists, but
concentrate on those who spend
more. Recently, the Sultanate has
taken certain important measures