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Please find below an article which was published in the Times of Oman.

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Tourism takes a giant leap

By Visvas Paul D. Karra

Sunday, April 13, 2008 1:11:16 AM Oman Time

MUSCAT — The tourism sector has registered an impressive growth of 19 per cent in 2006 and has been growing at the same accelerated pace for the past three to four years, said Dr Rajiha bint Abdul Amir bin Ali, minister of tourism, yesterday.

Dr Rajiha said the investment in the undergoing and new tourism projects will be to the tune of billions of dollars.

A number of new projects will be implemented in different regions and governorates of the Sultanate by Omani and non-Omani investors. The ministry is currently preparing new procedures and ideas that will have positive outcome on the country and the citizen.

Rajiha added that the projects include Al Saifa, Kalbouh Park, Al Souda Island, A’seeb, Ras Al Hamra, Al Rowdah, Ras Al Hadd and Enit, in addition to two other projects near The Wave and five other projects in Musandam governorate, Al Batinah region, Buraimi governorate and the wilayat of Duqm in Al Wusta region.

Dr Rajiha also disclosed that the ministry has outlined a plan to provide restaurant and rest room facilities at strategic places in the country frequented by tourists.

The growth rate, which has been achieved in 2006, the first year of the Seventh Five-Year Development Plan (2006-2010), is more than double the planned growth rate for the sector in the plan.

“While the ministry had expected a modest growth of 7 per cent in Seventh Five- Year Plan, the sector had exceeded all expectations, and we expect to achieve more,” Dr Rajiha said during an interaction with editors-in-chief, columnists and media persons concerned with economic and tourism issues.

The tourism sector’s value added GDP increased from RO59 million in 2002 to RO103.2 million in 2006. It is worth noting here that this value addition is from the hotels and restaurant sub-sector only.

The actual value addition of the tourism sector would have been much higher when the other sub-sectors such as the travel agents, tour operators, car rental companies and diving centres are included in the national accounts system of the country.

To a query by Times of Oman, with regard to the facilities like toilets and restaurants for tourists and visitors who are travelling long distances by road, Dr Rajiha said that the Ministry of Tourism has sought the approval of the Ministry of Finance to provide such facilities.

These facilities will be set up in different phases after identifying main locations and highways where tourists are bound to frequent like Nizwa, Sur and Ras Al Hadd.

“All such facilities that are being set up will be operated 24 hours and for this approvals have been sought for recurrent expenditures,” the minister said.

According to Rajiha, till October 2007, there are more than 40 small, medium and large projects that have been approved to be built on government land. Investments in these projects could run into billions of dollars, she said.

Already, a number of big projects are underway like Blue City, The Wave, Yitti, Jebel Sifah and Salalah Beach Resort.

All these projects are expected to tide over the shortage of rooms which is acutely felt mainly by those in the MICE sector. “In fact the number of rooms is going to double in the next five years,” the minister said.

The number of tourists who visited the Sultanate was 1.4 million in 2007.

Answering a question on the recreational activities at the tourism projects, Rajiha said the Tourism Ministry encourages setting up of the projects with novel ideas that add value to the recreational facilities. A number of tourism projects provide world-class entertainment and recreational facilities and services, she added.

The tourism sector has been identified as one of the key growth areas even as the Sultanate of Oman seeks to diversify the national economy from oil to non-oil based revenue sources.

Under the Vision 2020 Plan, the tourism sector is expected to increase its contribution to the GDP from the present less than 1 per cent to more than 3 per cent. At current prices, tourism sector’s contribution was around 0.7-0.8 per cent during the period 2002-2006. Again, this is the share of the hotels and restaurants only, thus excluding the other sectors which are directly related to the tourism industry.