Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #42

Hotel & Tourism
SMARTreport #42
2019 Spring Edition 5
5
© Richard Bartz
© Shivinder Bhandari
OMAN RECEIVES
PATWA CULTURE
AWARD
IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Minister of Tourism,
Wadi Bani Khalid,
Sharqiyah region, Oman
The minaret of Friday Mosque
as seen from Nizwa Fort,
Nizwa, Oman
The Sultanate of Oman made a new
achievement in the tourism sector
this year as it was awarded the “Best
Destination - Heritage & Culture” in
2019 by the Pacific Area Travel Writers
Association (PATWA), an official
UNWTO affiliate in March this year.
HE Ahmed bin Nasser Bin Hamed Al
Mahrizi, Minister of Tourism, received
the Sultanate's award, on the sidelines
of ITB Berlin from Dr Taleb Rifai,
former UNWTO Secretary-General,
and Sagar Ahluwalia, the Secretary
General of Pacific Area Travel Writers
Association (PATWA).
that have had positive impacts on the
tourism sector of our country. These
measures included making tourism
visa easy, increasing investment in the
sector, establishing more hotel and
other related establishments, increasing
promotional drive and exploring new
markets.
What are the main source markets
and how are they evolving?
The gulf countries – especially in
June, July and August. They come to
the south of Oman, because in these
months, the weather is similar to India,
with rain, and temperatures dropping
to the mid 20s, when the weather is
very hot in the north of Oman. It’s not
far for them, and they prefer to come
by car. In the winter time, they come to
the north of Oman. After that, there’s
the Europeans, with the number one
market being the UK. We also have
WE HAVE
MOUNTAINS, DESERT
AND BEAUTIFUL
SEAS FOR DIVING.
MICE IS ANOTHER
SECTOR WE WANT
TO GROW.
many visitors from Germany and France.
There are an increasing number of
charter flights from Europe to the south
of Oman – to Salalah. New markets for
us are China, Iran and India. Indians
have been coming for a long time, but
we have been increasing our focus on
this market since last year.
OMAN TO BECOME
OFFICIAL PARTNER OF ITB
BERLIN 2020
The Ministry of Tourism of the
Sultanate of Oman has been named
as Official Partner Country for ITB
Berlin, held in March 2020. The major
international forum of the travel
and tourism industry will see the
participation of many hotels and other
tourism establishments of the country,
along with the national carrier of
the Sultanate, Oman Air, and Oman
Airports Company. The Sultanate has
recently taken a number of important
measures to aid the country’s tourism
sector. These included facilitating
tourism visas, increasing investment
in the sector, encouraging investment
in the hospitality sector, increasing
promotion and exploring new
markets.