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Oman Tourism Report Q3 2011
Business Monitor International, June 2011, Pages: 44
The Oman Tourism Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, tourism associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Oman's tourism industry.
Oman’s tourism sector has been one of this oil rich country’s real success stories. Faced with the prospect of its oil reserves running out faster than many of its Gulf neighbours, the Sultanate has needed to broaden its economic base. The path taken by its tourism industry has been to emphasise its genuine historical and natural attractions. It is, in many ways, a foil to its glitzy neighbour in Dubai.
There are a number of key positives that favour the industry in Oman:
- There are very significant investments being made in facilities and supporting infrastructure.
- The economy is solidly based and in a position to support the planned investments in its tourism sector.
- Oman Air, as an indicator for the industry is presently thriving. In its 2010 profit announcement the company reported a 40% increase in revenues – at a time of very lacklustre growth for civil aviation globally. As the shadow from the Global Financial Crisis recedes, the company has resumed its services between Salalah and Dubai and between Muscat and Zanzibar. It has also announced that it is introducing daily flights between Colombo and Muscat.
Balancing these are a few risks to the generally optimistic outlook:
- While Oman has avoided most of the political upheaval that has rocked the region there are still questions and many turn on the position of the Sultan. Sultan Qaboos has been in power for 40 years. He has done much to modernise the country and is popular to the point of unchallengeable. However, he is now ageing and there is no apparent succession plan.
- The country has a young demographic. More than half the population is under 25 and the labour market is struggling to absorb the large number of relatively well educated people coming into the workforce each year. The present solution of creating ever more government jobs cannot continue forever.
Overall, though, we are predicting solid growth throughout the forecast period with visitor numbers growing 5-6% each year.
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