Sunday 26 / October / 2025
Muscat: Oman attracted more than 1.4 million tourists from the GCC countries last year, a top official at the Sultanate’s Ministry of Tourism has said.
Speaking at the 2019 Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, Salim bin Oday Al Mamari, the Director General of Tourism Promotions at the ministry, said Oman had attracted more than 1.4 million tourists from the GCC countries in 2018.
Oman is one of the members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. The others are Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain.
Al Mamari said: “The ministry and a number of institutions of the tourism sector of Oman always show their keen interest in the annual ATM Dubai which they consider as an ideal strategic platform to showcase the services made available in Oman as well as the promotional plans.
“These efforts are made to strengthen the Sultanate’s position as one of the leading tourist destinations of the world, as it has diverse natural resources and unique historical and cultural heritage.
In addition, Salalah city was chosen as the capital of the Arabian Summer Resorts for this year. In general, a number of hotel projects are coming up in different governorates of Oman.
They will be opened this year. There are 31 new hotels which would add more than 3,264 new rooms in the existing accommodation facility in the country.
In view of the indicators, data, details of investments, initiatives and promotional campaigns, we are expecting that the number of tourists coming to the Sultanate will increase in coming years and would see continuation of the growth at rate of about 13 per cent between 2018 and 2019.
He added: “The ATM Dubai which is also known as ‘Al Multaqa’ provides us opportunities and platforms to increase communication with our partners and promote our tourism products in line with Oman’s Tourism Strategy and promotional plans.”
Al Mamari went on to say that the Ministry of Tourism would showcase the latest developments, services and tourism facilities made available in the Sultanate in the presence of participating international markets.
This is to enhance the Sultanate’s position as a preferred tourist destination in different seasons and times attracting thousands of tourists annually from the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the world.
In addition this, it will focus on the special tourism offers given by the Sultanate in cooperation with many other partners from public and private sectors, to attract more tourists.
“We also want to offer exclusive offers and packages tailor-made according to the needs of the tourist,” he explained. “These offers are being shown in various media and promotional campaigns of the ministry in coordination and cooperation with our partners in the tourism sector.”
The ATM Dubai 2019 has strong presence of the Sultanate of Oman with the Ministry of Tourism is participating in various activities and businesses of the exhibition which would continue between April 28 till May 1, 2019 at the Dubai Exhibition and Convention Centre.
At ATM Dubai, tourism ministries from around the world, concerned authorities and institutions and companies working in the sector, as well as its major players, investors, decision makers and experts of world tourism who represent various travel, aviation, shipping, hotel, resorts, conference centres, event managers and organisers of tours, service providers, promoters and senior executive of various travel, tourism and other relevant vital sectors participate.
This year, many companies and organisations from the Oman’s tourism sector are taking part in the pavilion of the Sultanate at the ATM Dubai 2019 due to the keen interest taken by the Ministry of Tourism in supporting these institutions so that they can showcase and promote their products and programs at the event and meet with their counterparts from around the world present
at the event.
