It’s certainly great news for the Sultanate, which should bring joy to all citizens. According to Her Excellencey Maitha Bint Saif Al Mahrouqiyah, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Tourism, latest tourism indicators show that the Sultanate leads with 75 per cent of tourism activities in the GCC. She also disclosed that the GCC tourism market contributed about 27 per cent to the growth of the Omani tourism sector.

All this proves that the government has adopted the right strategy in promoting tourism in the country and that its strategies for the long term will also yield rich dividends. It is a fact that tourism is growing with each passing year and the projections for growth in the coming years are also encouraging.

Ever since the beginning of the Blessed Renaissance, on the directives of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, the government has been giving a lot of stress to the development of tourism. The first priority was to develop a strong infrastructure.

That task has been undertaken on a massive scale in the course of the last seven five-year plans. The current plan too is laying great emphasis on the tourism sector. As a result of all this encouragement, there are hotels of every kind offering maximum luxury.

The countless restaurants, offering almost every type of cuisine in every corner of Muscat , also provide ample proof of this point. In other parts of the country too, this is the case. Sites of interest to tourists in all areas of the country have also been maintained well. Being an ancient country, Oman also has to offer a lot in terms of history.

Ancient castles, palaces and forts dot the land and they no doubt are major attractions. Government policies that have made the country tourism friendly are another reason for the flurry of visitors. Even in Salalah, venue of the Salalah Tourism Festival, a lot has been achieved but there is no doubt that more has to be done to ensure that the traffic of domestic, regional and international tourists goes up in the coming years.

The reasons for the Sultanate’s leading position in tourism activities in the GCC are not far to seek. In fact, Oman has a lot to offer, the most important being the country’s scenic beauty. Muscat can be cited as a case in point. With the azure sea on one side and the majestic Al Hajar Mountains on the other, Muscat is a tourist’s paradise.

The tourism department must also be given credit for packaging the Sultanate and selling it in an attractive way. Besides all this, the fact is that a variety of factors have contributed to the growth of tourism in the country and this is in accordance with the desires of His Majesty the Sultan to see the country at the top of international tourist destinations.