Oman working on $11bn integrated tourism projects

Oman has granted 19 licences for developing integrated tourism complexes with investments worth OMR4.38 billion ($11.37 billion).

Projects worth OMR3.12 billion are in the pre-implementation phase, state-run Oman News Agency reported citing a statement from the ministry of heritage and tourism.

The complexes are planned across Muscat, Dhofar, South Al Sharqiyah, South Al Batinah and Musandam governorates.

These projects will have 81 hotels, including 16,576 keys, 2,552 apartment hotels and villas, as well as 42,617 housing units.

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“The integrated tourism complexes are a modern style of tourism cities that provide all services and facilities under one roof,” said Azzan Qasim Al Busaidi, undersecretary at the ministry of heritage and tourism.

The integrated complexes will allow non-Omanis to own property, providing an opportunity to attract capital and business people to live in the Gulf nation.

In addition to its direct economic contribution to GDP, the integrated tourism complexes will provide many direct and indirect jobs, boost supply chains in the tourism sector and raise the volume of in-country value.

In 2016 Oman launched a 25-year strategy to increase the number of tourists to 11.7 million per year by 2040 from 2.6 million in 2015.

The country wants to grow tourism’s GDP contribution to 6 percent, from 2.6 percent, by building new hotels and promoting destination “clusters”.

Oman’s Vision 2040 economic plan has allocated OMR20 billion ($51 billion) to further grow the tourism sector.

The number of visitors to the country grew by 348 percent year on year in 2022 to 2.9 million, driven by the GCC, Egypt and India, according to government data published in April.