Destination Oman

The discussion about greater local participation in decision-making processes in tourism development and in the economic benefits from tourism has increasingly become an issue in global tourism literature, and includes Arab countries from Morocco to Jordan. What distinguishes Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt or Jordan from the Gulf States in general and from Oman in particular is their relatively longer tourism experience.

It was in the mid-1990s only that the Sultanate of Oman emerged as a new tourist destination in the European travel industry. Yemen, due to its rich archaeological and cultural heritage as well as to its natural attractions, had by then become an established destination for the Middle East traveler. Dubai on the other hand was aggressively promoting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a haven for shopping, business, conference and sun-sea-sand tourism. The Sultanate gained popularity as a politically safe, yet 'largely unknown tourist destination in the Orient, combining adventure and comfort, solitude and urban life, diversity of landscapes and cultural attractions' (translated from Kabasci & Franzisky, 1996: back-cover). The shores of this new destination (see Figure 7.1), in the south east corner of the Arabian Peninsula, cover a distance of around 1700 km, from the Strait of Hormuz in the Arabian Gulf over the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean to the borders of Yemen. With a population numbering only about 2.7 million inhabitants, the Sultanate occupies the large area of more than 300,000 sq. km. This area includes different types of terrain, from plains, to highlands and mountains, intersected by wadis, and a great variety of natural and man-made landscapes, ranging from sand deserts and gravel plains to the woodlands on Jabal al Akhdar and the monsoon-affected escarpment of the Dhofar Mountains, and the man-made oasis gardens.