Oman’s resort and hotel portfolio continues to expand with over 2,000 additional rooms scheduled for opening in 2012/ 2013. Muscat sees the most growth with the addition of 726 rooms, while niche resorts are set to open in Salalah, Khasab and in the high altitude Hajar Mountains. Duqm, Oman’s new city on the Arabian Sea, sees the opening of three hotels with a total of 391 rooms. The portfolio sees continued strengthening and diversification of Muscat’s room supply, and also increasing focus on regional projects from Khasab in the north to Oman’s southern gateway, Salalah.

Her Excellency Maitha Al Mahrouqi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Tourism said, “Oman is seeing strong investor demand in the sector, especially in niche properties. This is from government sponsored joint ventures through OMRAN and increasing Omani participation. Overall, our approach is to ensure 5 star developments are located in 5 star natural landscapes. This approach gives us a competitive edge and fuels investment demand.”

OMRAN is the company set up by the Government of Oman to deliver major projects and to manage assets and investments in the tourism sector.

Unlike previous years, the pattern of investment shows significant investment commitment in regional areas including Oman’s new city on the Sea of Arabia (Duqm) where three hotels will come online, but also in Oman’s high altitude Hajar Mountains where both government and private sector investment is on the rise.

For the past two years, both the Oman Ministry of Tourism’s Hajar Mountain summer campaign and Salalah Tourism Festival promotional activities have been pitched at day visitors from Muscat and GCC visitors arriving by land vehicle. Visitor numbers have soared with investors responding with three major resorts to open on Jabal Al Akhdar, adding to the Sunrise Resort on Jabal Asar’h near Jabal Shams that opened in early 2012.

Property group Muriya opened its Sifawy Boutique Hotel at Jabal Sifah (50 km east of Muscat) in early 2012. The group’s Juweira Boutique Hotel at Salalah Beach Resort (64 suites and 21 guest rooms) is set to open in the coming months. The year 2013 will see more hotels open at the Jabal Sifah and Salalah Beach Resorts.

Oman’s entry into the global business and meetings market will accelerate with the opening of the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC) from 2015. The OCEC project comprises a 3,000 seat plenary hall, 40,000m2 of exhibition space, business centre and four hotels totaling 1,000 rooms.

Several new hotel openings are also scheduled at The Wave and the InterContinental Hotel site.

On Tuesday May 15th at 11.00 am the UK’s Immigration Minister, Damian Green, appeared before the British parliament’s Home Affairs Committee to answer questions about queues at passport control in Heathrow Airport.

Simultaneously, the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) released a statement pointing out that the problems created by UK Border Agency at Heathrow, whilst bad for Britain’s image and economically damaging, should be viewed in the wider context of the problems caused by issuing visas.

Research conducted by ETOA reveals that hundreds of millions of pounds are lost to the UK economy every year because the visa process is so alienating that applicants give up and decide to go elsewhere.

- The UK tourist visa costs £78, which currently offers two countries: the UK and, courtesy of a recent waiver scheme, Ireland. The Schengen visa costs €60 and offers 26 countries.
- The Schengen visa application form is three pages long; that for the UK is eight pages.
- The UK visa form has to be completed in English. The Chinese do not require their visa forms to be completed in Chinese characters; the Russians do not insist on Cyrillic
- Prospective visitors have to submit fingerprints as well as a photo, make themselves available for an interview at a location that can be hundreds of miles from where they live. They may have to wait for as long as three weeks for a decision
- ETOA’s survey of travel agents and tour operators showed that 26% of Indian and 30% of Chinese clients applying for UK visas gave up rather than endure this time consuming and humiliating application.
- France now attracts over 50% more visitors from India than the UK.
- In 2009, Switzerland joined the Schengen Area. Indian visitor arrivals were at 132,000 in 2008, by 2010 they stood at 197,000; this was growth of 49%. In the same period, the UK numbers rose from 359,000 to 371,000: a growth rate of 3%.
- Since the UK introduced visas for South Africans in 2009, visitor numbers have declined by 24%. In the same year visas were abolished for Taiwanese travelling to the UK. Visitor numbers have since increased by 39% and revenue by 155%.
- Visit Britain’s figures show that just 3% of Chinese visitors to Europe in 2010 obtained a UK visa, 2% obtained both UK and Schengen visas and 95% obtained just a Schengen visa

Tom Jenkins, Executive Director of ETOA said, “Images of queues at Heathrow damage the UK; they make the prospect of a visit here tiresome and unattractive. The damage done by this is major, but is short term: it can be fixed quickly. The damage done by our visa regime takes place thousands of miles away, where the clients are, in the origin markets. These markets, such as India, China and Indonesia, are of enormous long term importance to our strategic growth as a destination. They are being lost.

The current government is making efforts to improve the speed and experience of obtaining a UK visa. Given the benefits to jobs and investment, this should have the highest priority.”